The paradise within the reach of all men, without labour, by powers of nature and machinery : an address to all intelligent men

I •ti / e?"^*" '^ '-^^K.

^'f '1

' -.V-

PUBLISHED BY JOHN BROOKS,

421, OXFORD STREET.

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THE

PARADISE

WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL MEN,

WITHOUT LABOUR,

BY POWERS OF NATURE 4ND MACIIINERV

AN ADDRESS

TO ALL INTELLIGENT MEN.

IN TWO PARTS.

By J. A. ETZIiEK,

FIRST PART.

Toil and poverty will he no inorc among: men ;
>>atarc aHoriis iii(inite powers and wealth ;
Let us but observe an«l reason.

The wi-e examines before he judges;
The fool judges before he examines.

LONDON:

JOHN BROOKS, 421, OXFORD STREET.
MDCCCXXXVI.

PREFACE.

Look here, ye pliilosopliers, ye speculators, ye epi-
cureans, ye philanthropists, ye who seek the philoso-
pher's stone, ye who undergo all hardships and dan-
gers, and traverse the ocean from one extremity to the
other in search of money ; — a new, easy, straight and
short road to the summit of your wishes is shown. —
Ye who are tired of life's toil and vexations, drop your
tool, pause a little, and look here at the means for a
new life, free of labour, full of enjoyments and pleasures ;
collect your thoughts, and reflect with the greatest
solicitude that you are capable of, upon the means and
■ways presented to you here, for the greatest human
happiness imaginable, for yourselves, for the objects of
your endearments, and for your posterity for evej.

Here is no idle fancy, no vain system presented to
amuse you merely ; no scheme for deceiving you, or
for cheating you out of your money ; — but only sub-
stantial means for your greatest happiness are here
displayed before your eyes, in a fair, open, and honest
way ; no sacrifice, no trust, no risk is asked of you ;
nothing but the trouble to examine. If the author be
in error — why, you will then soon discover it; but if
he is right, then no endeavours, even of the greatest
prater, will be able to disprove the exhibited truths.

" Why gives the author so great invaluable discove •

IV

riesto the public — discoveries, wliicli, if true, he mijjht
sell for millions ? — Or is he so simple us not to know
how to avail himself of his discoveries for his best
profit?" '

These are questions you probably will ask. I vili
answer them directly. It is because I want to sell
these my productions at the hiu;hest price 1 can get for
them, just as you do with youisin the market. Now,
mere millions are too low a price for my discoveries.
I want to sell them at a much higher rate; at the
rate of seeing aU my fcllow-mcn, and myself with
thent, together, in the enjoyment of the greatest hap-
piness that Iiuman life be capable of; because 1 sec
there is no danger in it, the world being large enough,
and having means enough, for afi'ording the greatest
(uippiness that can be thought of, not only for myself
and a few friends, but for all men on earth.

Well, if r cannot get this high price for these pro-
ductions of mine, 1 shall then do, as you do with yours,
when you cannot get your demand, sell them at a lower
rate, that is, for mere money, perhaps to some other
people or government, to whomsoever that will buy
them ; or even, if I cannot help it, if the puldic should
turn (leaf ears to me, perhaps to some cunning wealthy
speculators, and let them do with them what they
please.

To understand this, without troubling yourselves
with reading first the whole book, I will give you a
brief explanation on the subject.

1 show hero, that there are powers in nature suffi-
cient to effect in one year more than hitherto all men
on earth could do in many thousands of years; that

these powers may be applied to do all human labour;
I show you the system of establishments fur it ; and
finally, that the most profitable, shortest, and easiest
way to put them into operation for sueli great purposes,
is,- to form associations in the manner pointed out, so
as to enable the rich and the poor to participate fully
in all the possible greatest benefits of these discoveries,
by paying a share not greater than the price of a lottery-
ticket; not before, however, he isperfectly convincedof
the truth of my assertions, and only into the hands of
his own choice, not in mine ; for I want to have no
concern in the money a flairs for the execution of the
proposals ; I engage myself only for communicating
the contrivances as far as required.

THE AUTHOR.

Tl

PREFACE TO THE BRITISH EDITION.

The work, now for tlic first time presented to the
British public, was originally published at Pittsburgh,
in the United States, about three years ago, which will
account for the calculations that occur in it being
made in dollars, the common currency of that exten-
sive country. What has been the effect of its publi-
cation in the United States, the publisher of the pre-
sent edition has no means of accurately ascertaining;
but a copy of the work having fallen into his hands,
he judged it by far too important to remain unknown
to the people of this country.

It has been calculated, that the present mechanical
and chemical power of Great Britain and Ireland are
equal to the productive power of six hundred millions
of human beings; but hitherto this power has been
directed so as to enrich the few, at the expense of the
many. Great as this power is, however, the author of
the following work shows most clearly, that it is no-
thing in comparison witli those stupendouspowers which
yet exist in nature, and which man has nothing to do
but immediately to render tributary to his wants and
wishes, to secure to the whole human race the richest
abundance of everything that is desirable ; and that
this result may be speedily attained, is the ardent
wish of the

BRITISH PUBLISHER.

Vll

INDEX.

First Part. page

Introduction 1

The power of wind ()

The power of the tide 19

The power of the waves 26

Burning mirrors 33

The power of steam 36

General remarks on all these powers 45

Perpetual motions 48

Prospect and retrospect of the human condition in

general 53

System of machineries and establishments for the

application of these powers CO

Agriculture 61

Architecture 62

Flexible stuff 64

Objects attainable in general 6^

Plan for the buildings of a community GO

New state of human life 78

Occupations in the new state of things 82

The earth can nourish 1000 times more men than

now exist 96

Pecuniary profit of the new means 97

Constitution of an association proposed 103

General views on the subject 109

Address to the Americans in particular 115

Vlll

Second Part. Page

Pioposalt:, liow to render the new means the most

beneficial for the United States 121

Formation of a new state 141

First period 141

.Second period 142

Third period 146

Fourtli period 15()

Appeal to the Americans H>1

Comparative vicv\ on the condition of man at pre-
sent, and that attainable by [he new means ... 1(35

In physical respects 166

In moral respects 184

In intellectual respects 192

Conclusion of the Second Part 206

Petition to Congress on the subject 20/

Letter to the President of the United States 215

Proposal of a pamphlet, the New \^'orld 215

fellow-men:

I promise to show the means for creating a paradise
within ten years, where every thing desirahle for hnman
life may be had for every man in superabundance, with-
out hibour, without pay ; where the whole face of na-
ture is changed into the most beautiful form of which
it be capable ; where man may live in the most mag-
nificent palaces, in all imaginable refinements of
luxury, in the most delightful gardens; where he may
accomplish, without his labour, in one year more than
hitherto could be done in thousands of years ; he may
level mountains, sink valleys, create lakes, drain lakes
and swamps, intersect every where the land with beau-
tiful canals, with roads for transporting heavy loads of
many thousand tons, and for travelling 1000 miles in
twenty-four hours; he may covier the ocean with floating
islands moveable in any desired direction with immense
power and celerity, in perfect security and in all comforts
and luxury, bearing gardens, palaces, with thousands
of families, provided with rivulets of sweet water; he
may explore the interior of the globe, travel from
pole to pole in a fortnight; he may provide himself
with means unheard of yet, for increasing his know-
ledge of the world, and so his intelligence; he may
lead a life of continual happiness, of enjoyments un-
known yet ; he may free himself from almost all the

B

evils that afflict mankind, except death, and even put
death far beyond the common period of human life,
and. finally, render it less afflicting : mankind may
thus live in, and enjoy a new world far superior to our
present, and raise themselves to a far higher scale of
beings.

It may appear very wonderful that none of these
things, though they comprehend all the objects man
may possibly desire in this woild, ever existed yet,
since thousands of years, and that they all should have
originated from one single individual. But this won-
der will greatly diminish, if not entirely cease, when it
will be seen that these great promises are founded on
facts well known, that any man of common sense, if
he ever had bestowed full attention upon them, would
have come, ultimately, to the same or similar results
as I am about to show ; and when it is considered that
many contrivances of modern times have led to great
comforts and advantages unknown to the ancients,
though they had the same mental faculties of making
them : they passed thousands of years in ignorance
and errors, thinking alwajs themselves to have reached
the summit of human perfection. History teaches
but too plainly, that the progress of human knowledges
and intelligence was every where most tediously slow.
Individuals who attempted sometimes to disperse new
valuable truths, were not listened to, and considered
insane in proportion their truths deviated from the
common track of the unthinking or unreasoning mul-
titude. Our present age is yet liable to the same great
evil ; — instances in proof of this are to be found in
plenty ; yet as it is superior to the preceding ages, it

is liable to this spiritual sloth in a less degree. After
an attentive perusal of this work, after some calm re-
flection upon the subject, it will be found that the
promised great ends are attainable to the full extent
and meaning of the words, without any wonder, with-
out any hidden power or secret of nature, but by a few
most simple contrivances.

The basis of my proposals is, that there arc powers
in nature at the disposal of man, million times greater
than all men on earth could effect, with their united
exertions, by their nerves and sinews, if I can show
that such a superabundance of power is at our dis-
posal, what should be the objections against applying
them to our benefit in the best manner we can tliink
of i* — If we have the requisite power for mechanical
purposes, it is then but a matter of human contrivance
to invent adapted tools or machines for application.
Powers must pre-exist; they cannot be invented;
they may be discovered ; no mechanism can produce
power ; it would be as absurd to invent tools that work
without any applied power to put them in operation ;
machineries, of whatever contrivance they be, are no-
thing but tools more or less combined. I think this
remark not to be superfluous, because many men, even
of talents in mechanics, have erroneously cherished
the idea of inventing mechanisms >\orking of them-
selves without given power, and have uselessly be-
stowed time and expenses on the invention of a per-
petual motion. — I wish my proposals not to be preci-
pitautly confounded with such vain schemes.

The chief objects of my statements are, therefore,
the powers to be applied : the application of them is

but of secondarv importance: this may be of an infi-
nite variety : that of the greatest advantage is the
most preferable. Wlien you are once convinced that
there is power enough at our disposal for the great
purposes in view, then you have the proof tliat the
attainment of the purposed ends is possible : the ques-
tion is then not more : whether the promised things arc
attainable, but how ? —

The powers are chiefly to be derived, 1, from wind ;

2, from the tide, or the rise and fall of the ocean caused
by the gravity between the moon and the ocean ; and

3, from the sunshine, or the heat of the sun, by
which water may be transformed into steam, whose
expansive power is to operate upon machineries,
though by a contrivance different from that actually
in use.

The waves of the ocean are also powers to be applied,
but as they are caused by wind, they are included in
the power of wind. Each of these powers requires no
consumption of materials, but nothing but the mate-
rials for the construction of the machineries.

I shall at first endeavour to show the magnitude of
each of these powers in its full extent over the whole
world, beginning with well-known facts; this will
show the average power for any required extent of
the surface of the globe. But as these powers are
very irregular and subject to interruptions, the next
object is to show how ihey may be converted into
powers that operate continually and uniformly forever
imtil the machinery be worn out at length, or, in other
words, into jjerpctuiil motions. After this it will be
the probleni, how to ;ipply these perpetual motions of

nature to the attainment of tlie purposes in view ?
I shall give a general outline of the system of ma-
chineries for effecting all promised purposes. Next
to this I shall state the ohjects attainable by these
means, and the condition of men that must result
from the accomplishment of such purposes. It will
then appear from the nature of the subject, that the
execution of the proposals is not qualified for single
individuals ; for as one machine is sufficient, under
the superintendence of a few men, to supply many-
thousand families with all their wants, both natural
and artificial ones, the consequence would be but
hurtful to the labouring class, as the price of their
labours would sink almost to nothing, dangers and
violences would ensue, and the effects would be more
destructive than beneficial, even to the undertakers
themselves, until after a series of convulsions a dif-
ferent order of things should be established. It would
be certainly a proper object for the Government to
make the arrangement for the execution of these
proposals; but as the Government of our nation is
the organ of the people's will, the subject must first be
popular ; but it cannot become popular before it is
generally known and understood. Therefore the exe-
cution of the proposals is only qualified for a large
body of intelligent men, who associate themselves
without limiting the number, time, and place, or coun-
try. I shall, therefore, finally propose a constitution
for association. The larger this society, and the
larger the means, the greater the advantages will be
for every participating individual.
I shall now state :

b2

1. THE POWn; OF wrND.

That there is power in wind, requires no proof of
me. The uses of it in navigation and windmills are
too well known. My object is to state Jiow much
power there is in wind : I shall state it in the full
extent, as far as it can he brought within the disposal
of men over the whole surface of the globe.

To find a measure for a power, it is usual and pro-
per to compare its effect with that a number of men or
beasts are able to produce; viz. in observing how many
men, horses, oxen, &c. are requisite for producing,
within the same time, the same effect which a certain
power produces. Thus it is said, e. g. : a steam-engine
has twenty or fifty horses' power, when twenty or fifty
horses would be requisite to produce tlie same effect.

When we compare a steam-boat running by the
power of its engine, of which the (juantity in horses'
power is determinated, and a vessel sailing by the
])ower of wind operating upon its sails, we may find
a measure of the latter power. Suppose a steam-boat
and a sailing vessel, both exactly of the same size,
form, and burden, or draught of water, and running
under equal circumstances with equal velocity. It is
then evident that the power of wind operating upon
the sails is equal to that of the steam-engine in the
steam-boat. A vessel sailing before the wind will, by
a good breeze, run at the rate of six to ten knots or sea
miles per hour,i. e. seven to twelve land miles. A steam-
boat running at the same rate in still water, with a load
of 4 to fiOO tons, will require an engine of about fifty
horses' power. The supposed sailing vessel will, conse-
quently, receive a power of wind of fifty horses. The

surface of its sails, tojietlier villi its Lull ahovc waiov
exposed to the wind, intevsectiug its course in a right
angle hy an imaginary profile through the greatest
dimensions of vessel and sails, be about 5000 square
feet ; every 100 square feet will then receive one horse's
power.

Long and many experiences with windmills prove
this pow er to be, in an average through the whole year,
a great deal stronger.

The Dutch have paid, since centuries, the greatest
attention to the application of wind on windmills for
various purposes. Holland being a flat, level country,
affords no falls of water; and this nation was, there-
fore, compelled to have recourse to the application of
wind on mills. Induced by a most extensive com-
merce in all parts of the globe, the Dutch nation
applied this power for many economical and commer-
cial purposes ; and they have now in their little coun-
try many thousand windmills. Hence it is that Dutch
windmills are taken for superior patterns by other
nations.

The experiences with Dutch windmills show, that a
mill with four wings, each thirty feet long and eight feet
wide, operates, in an average, with a power of eight
horses. The surface of each wing being, consequently,
240 square feet, all four wings expose to the wind a
surAice of 960 square feet, but in an oblique angle with
the direction of the wind, which will hardly equal to
the half of the same surface, or 480 square feet, when
intersecting the wind's direction in a right angle : 480
square feet, receiving an average pow er of eight horses,
and sixty being one-eighth of 480, the power of wind

8

on sixty square feet will, therefore, equal to one horse's
power in an average. I shall, therefore, think myself
free from exaggeration in taking, instead of sixty,
one hundred square feet of surface, operated upon hy
wind in a right angle, as the average measure of this
power for one horse. Moreover, it is to he home in
mind that heavy winds can either not fully or not at
all be used both in sailing and on windmills ; because
they have to diminish the surfaces exposed to wind, or
to take them away altogether for fear of breaking all
to pieces ; while I purpose to make use of the whole
l^ower of any wind. Wind is, .however, not every
where of the same average power. I do not mean
with respect to altitude, for differences arising there-
from may be remedied as will be seen hereafter, but I
mean in geographical respects. There are parts of
the globe where calms and hardly perceptible breezes
for the greatest part of the time are prevailing, while
in others gales and strong winds are almost continually
blowing. Within the tropical zone, and nearly thirty
degrees of north and south latitude, as far as conti-
nents do not interfere, blows perpetually the trade
wind. Thirty degrees north and south form a belt of
sixty degrees around the globe, which is exactly the
half of the vvhole surface of the globe, of which not
one-fourth are continents. On the continents within
the same zone are generally gales in one season and
daily regular breezes in the other, succeeding each
other. In mountainous regions and their vicinity is,
from variation of temperature, almost continually a
strong wind. In the other parts of the globe out of
this belt there is generally a greater irregularity of

winds, but in the whole no less wind. We may ob-
serve it every day by the moving of the clouds, though
we should not feel it on the ground on account of the
obstructions there. The motions of the clouds are, as
easily will be conceived, a great deal swifter, as the
appearance shows : their distance or height is gene-
rally from a half to two miles. Imagine now you
would see some object moving on the ground at such
a known distance, with the same apparent celerity as
the clouds, and you will have a conception of the
swiftness of these motions. The obstructions on the
ground that may hinder the usual applications of wind
in many places, are no objects in my intended mode
of applying this power.

As my object is to give an estimation of the power
of wind as near to the truth as can be, it may not be
superfluous to state my reasons in full for it, which
requires a general view of the state of the atmosphere,
as far as the knowledge of it, or aerology, teaches.

The atmosphere is an ocean of a thin, elastic, pon-
derable fluid, that surrounds the globe to the height of
about fifty miles. It extends itself by increase of heat,
and contracts itself by decrease of heat, more than any
other body. Hence it is chiefly that every variation
of temperature destroys the equilibrium of the atmo-
sphere, by extending or contracting the same some-
where. The weight of this fluid tends immediately
to restore the equilibrium, like we see on water, and
causes thereby a current of air or wind. The varia-
tion of temperature depending from locality, from the
time of day, from the time of seasons, from physical
operations in nature, such as vapours, rains, &c., and

10

from many other known and unknown causes, the state
or degree of heat is never and no- where always the
same, and changes, more or less, continually. Besides
the density or mass of the air of the atmosphere in-
creases and decreases, and the weight of it, in con-
sequence, varies, as we see by the barometer and
other means. Unknown causes of a more universal
nature may cause an impression or some influence
upon some place or other in the atmosphere. When
it happens that in some place an expansion of the at-
mosphere takes place, while in some other a contrac-
tion of the same exists, the current of air will run from
tJie former to the latter place, if even many hundred
miles distant from each other. When once the equi-
librium is destroyed, it cannot establish itself immedi-
ately, but \^ill effect first the surrounding vicinity, next
gradually the more distant parts, and so on until some
cause or counteraction stops or changes the notions,
nearly in the same manner as when we see a stone or
something else thrown into the water, where an un-
dulation around the place will ensue, extending gra-
dually further in larger and larger circles. Some
diff'erence, however, is to be noticed in the motions
of air. It being perfectly elastic, it yields to the slight-
est impression, and extends, the next moment, towards
that side where it finds the least resistance, to its full
room which it occupied before. Hence the reaction
of any moiion in the atmosphere is of longer duration
than in the water. Thus we see the atmosphere con-
tinually in a motion of the most irregular variation.
Not only horizontally, but still more frequently up and
down in oblique directions is the wind operating. Not

11

just parallel with the surface of the ground, but rather
in undulations, though very irregular, moves the wind,
as we may see easily by the direction of light bodies
floating in the atmosphere, such as snow, smoke, fea-
thers, &c.

In order to form an idea near the reality of nature,
how much power of wind there may be at our disposal,
we have to ascertain, by a deduction from experiences
and observations, how large we may construct and
expose surfaces to the effects of wind, and how close
they may be brought together without intercepting the
wind and diminishing its power materially. We knovv
by experiences, that ships of the first rank carry sails
200 feet high. We may, therefore, equally on land
oppose to the wind surfaces 200 feet high. Imagine
a line of such surfaces 200 feet high, and a mile (or
about 5000 feet) long ; the same v^ould then contain
1,000,000 square feet. Suppose this surface intersects
the direction of the wind in a right angle, by some
contrivances, and receives consequently the full power
of the wind at all times. The average power of wind
being equal to one horse's upon every 100 square feet,
the total power this surface would receive, would then
be equal to 1,000,000 divided by 100, or 1 0,000'horses'
power. Allowing the power of one horse to be equal
to that of ten men, the power of 10,000 horses is equal to
100,000 men's. But as men cannot uninterruptedly
work, and want about half of the time for sleep and re-
pose, the same power would be equal to 200,000 men's.
Imagine such another surface just behind or before the
former at one mile's distance, parallel to the first and in
the same circumstances. This second surface would

12

tluMi receive the same power of wind again aslhe first;
for the distance being twenty-five times greater than their
height, tlie one line could not intercept the wind from
the other in any considerable degree, both lines would
receive the full power of wind, as soon as the direc-'
tion of it would deviate from the horizontal more than
about two degree*. Jt may be easily observed, that the
wind will generally strike the ground in a steeper di-
rection, and therefore admit a closer approach of such
parallel surfaces. That the wind strikes the ground
obliquely is evident on the high sea. Else whence
the disturbance and rise of the waves on it? — Jf the
wind moved parallel to the ground, the surface
of the sea could not be affected by it, and would
remain smooth for ever. But such is never the case.
The least breeze ruffles the surface of the water. And
it is too well known, to what size and powerful effects
the waves may be raised by wind. Moreover, experi-
ences in navigation teach that vessels of the first rank
sailing along a shore of about 200 feet high, trees, Sec.
included, at their wind-side, at a distance of one mile,
will not suffer any considerable diminution of wind.
If the supposed two surfaces will receive such a power
of wind as stated, that is, each equal to 200,000 men's
power, a third surface of the same height at the same
distance, and parallel to the former under equal circum-
stances, will receive the same quantity of power; so a
fourth, fifth, and so on, as far as may be chosen. The
length of each such surface may, under the supposed
circumstances, be prolonged as far as we please, the
power of wind will be every where the same. Now,
if we find the power of wind to be at the end of every

J3

mile eqiial to 200,000 men's po^ver, and so for every
mile, in breadlh, it follows, tlmt every one square mile
affords such a power. — What an immense power? —
The most populous countries in the world contain in
an average from 100 to 200 individuals on every square
mile, of which hardly one-half is able to work, or to
he counted for full hands to work. But suppose even
100 full hands to work on one square mile, the power of
wind within their places of habitation will be 2000
(imes greater. Yet this will not be the whole power
of wind at their disposal. We are not limited to the
height of 200 feet. We might extend, if required,
the application of this power to the height of the
clouds, by means of kites. If we extend it, for instance,
to but 2000 feet high, we might increase the power
ten times as much, that is, 20,000 times greater than
the inhabitants of ibe most populous countries could
effect with their nerves and sinews. Yet we will get
a more proper conception of this power, in extending
this comparison over the whole globe. The surface of
the globe is about 200,000,000 square miles. Accord-
ing to the foregoing statement of 200,000 men's
power for every one square mile, the whole extent of
the wind's power over the globe amounts to about
200,000,000 times 200,000, i. r. to 40,000,000,000,000
men's power. Tlic number of all human individuals
on earth will not exceed 1000,000,000,of which hardly
the half may be counted for full hands to work, that is,
500,000,000 ; consequently, the stated power of wind
is 80,000 limes greater than all men on earth could
effect with their nerves, when the wind is used but
to the height of 200 feet.

14

It may now be objected, that this computation in-
cludes the surface of the ocean and uninhabitable re-
gions of the earth, where this power could not be ap-
plied for our purposes. But you will recollect, that I
have promised to show the means for rendering the
ocean as inhabitable as the most fruitful dry land ; and
1 do not even exclude the polar regions.

It may be questioned, how surfaces 200 feet high
may be exposed perpendicularly to wind for opera-
tion ? — It may be done in the usual manner of wind-
mills, but with great advantage in a different way
contrived by me, so that every square mile may be
surrounded by a continued line of surfaces or sails to
the height of 200 feet, moveable around an axis, and
occupying not one-tenth of the ground with all their
machineries.

What a gigantic, awful power is this ! 80,000 times
greater than all men on earth could effect by the
united exertions of their nerves ! — at the least calcu-
lation. Suppose even one-half should be lost by fric-
tion of the machineries, or more, we need not econo-
mise with such an immensity of power, let but one-
eighth of it be used, it would amount still to 10,000
times the power of all men on earth. . If men were all
and continually employed to work for useful purposes,
they would effect a great deal morv^ than we actually
see, and might give to the world a far better appear-
ance and a greater plenty of necessaries and comforts
of human life. But if 1 0,000 times more can be done,
if in one year, consequently, can be affected as much
as hitherto in 10,000 years! — to what awful grandeur
may not the human race exalt themselves ? ! The

15

greatest monuments and wonders known or left us to
admire from our progenitors, which required many
millions of hands, and many centuries to be finished,
are nothing- but childish, insignificant trifles, in com-
parison to the stupendous works that may be affected
by these powers. Yet it is not the only power we
have at our disposal. You may startle at this idea ; you
may ask again and again, can it be possible, that there
is such a power for our use ? — like I have done. Am
I perhaps grossly mistaken in my statement.? Js it
perhaps nothing but a fancy ? — a deception of my
imagination .•' I have taken the most common experi-
ences of sails and \\indmills for the basis of the state-
ment. It is now for you to judge, whether the state-
ment of these experiences are true or materially false.
It will be an easy matter to decide this question. Ask
the navigator, ask the wind-miller; or observe the power
of wind yourself in any way you please. The re-
sults of your inquiries or observations may vary, they
may show more or less power than I have stated ; but
suppose even the result to be but a small portion of
what I have stated, we should still have an enormity
of power. However I am confident a close investiga-
tion will show a far greater power than I have stated.
If my statement of experiences is materially true, is
there perhaps some gross mistake in my conclusions
and computation ? — This may easily be ascertained. If
you find no material mistake in my present statement,
is it possible for rational men to behold this power with
indifference? — Does the subject not deserve our great-
est attention and reflection ? — You may ask, how is it
that no application of great extent was ever made yet ?

16

— In navigation we do make a considerable use of this
power, and on land in some places by windmills. But
it will occur now to your mind, that this power, on ac-
count of its irregularity, cannot always, nor any where,
be applied. Hcie I have to repeat, it can. There is
a material difference between the manner of application
used hitherto and that which f propose. Hitherto the
power of wind has been applied immediately upon the
machinery for use, and they had to wait the chances
of the wind's blowing; where the operation is stopped,
as soon as the wind ceases to blow. But the manner,
which I shall state hereafter, to apply this power, is to
make it operate only for collecting or storing up the
power in a manner, and then to take out of this store
of power, at any time, as much power for final operation
upon the machineries as may be wanted for the intended
purposes. The power stored up is to react, just as it
may suit the purposes, and may do so long after the ori-
ginal power of wind has ceased. And, though the wind
should cease at intervals of many months, we may have
by the same power an uniform perpetual motion in a
very simple way.

If you ask, perhaps, why is this power not more used,
if the statement be true ? — I have to ask in return :
whyisthepowerofsteam so lately come to application?
So many millions of men boiled water every day since
many thousands of years; they must have frequently
seen, that boiling water in tightly closed pots or ket-
tles will lift the cover or burst the vessel with great
vehemence. The power of steam was, therefore, as
commonly known, down to the least kitchen or wash-
woman, as the power of wind. But close observation

17

and reflection was bestowed neither on the one nor the
other. It is by calm reflection, by linking the elements,
or first and simple observations and ideas derived there-
from, together by little and little, that man is only ca-
pable to discover truths, which escape to immediate
observations. It is thus often the case, that we arrive
at truths which we never fancied or expected, begin-
ning with the most simple truths known to every one,
comprehensible even to little children, and which
truths, therefore, would seem to be below the attention
of mature men : man reasons from these first elements
of his comprehension, he links them together into a
chain, extends them further and further, applies them,
and startles at last at the result : he mistrusts his
judgment, suspects errors, goes back again to the most
simple elements of conceptions, pursues again and
again the course of his reasoning with the minutest at-
tention, to discover errors, compares his theory with
experiments, and sees finally compelled his reason to
admit the discovered truth. Encouraged by the sur-
prising result, he proceeds further with heightened
curiosity. Thus mathematics took their origin, and
in their consequences all sciences of certainty. Be-
ginning with the most simple conceptions, which
seem to the beginner to be the most insipid trifles un-
worthy his attention, he cannot seethe reason why this
minuteness of inquiry into these most simple things;
he is led gradually into more complicated truths, and
finally to astonishing results. He sees himself at last
enabled to survey the universe without leaving his
room ; he discovers the size, form, and motion of the
whole earth, the distance of the sun, moon, and stars,

c2

their size, form, motions, and relations to each other; lie
ascertains that th.cy are worlds, larger even than our
parth, distant many millions of miles from us and from
each other; he sees an universe of many millions of
large worlds, whole systems of worlds ; new ideas start
in his mind, he sees no end in his discoveries. But tell
to the man of equal faculties, but who is unacquainted
with the train of close reasoning that led to those
results, — tell him all these discoveries! talk to him
about size and distances of the sun, moon, <S:c., where
never any human being was, nor can go ; tell these ma-
thematical truths to him, whose mind is'perhaps filled
with erroneous notions and prejudices, of which he
cannot give any rational account, which he never
thought to examine. What will he answer ?— He
will deride the man of these knowledges, he will take
him for a fool. — But when lie sees that the same
man predicts with precision eclipses of the sun and
moon, &c., when he sees this supposed fool makes
books and astronomical tables, to show, out of his room,
to the navigator the means of finding his w?.y through
the vast ocean around the world, and many other
strange things, of which he has not the most distant
idea, — the poor man does not know what to think of
it. — Truths like these are in our days generally ac-
knowledged; but it is not long ago when they were not.
And even now the reasons of tliese discoveries are by
far not generally understood ; the results are but by a
part of the multitude believed on authority of the
learned men. Many cases might be alleged, how the
multitude have lived always in the grossest errors, pre-
judices, and ignorance, despising and deriding all at-

19

tempts of single individuals for discovering and apply-
ing usefully new trutlis.

I have announced to show the means for creating a
paradise, a new snperior world, to eflcct in one year
more than hitherto could be done in thousands of years.
People may ridicule the idea, or think the realization
of such miraculous. But where is the wonder to effect
these purposes, if we have powers enough and supera-
bundant for it? If, e. g. you have to move a weight of
one ton, and you know ten horses will effect it, but you
have, instead often horses, 100; — where would be the
wonder or the doubtfulness of being able to do it? Just
so it is with my proposals. The removal of one ton by
100 horses, would certainly be less easy than to effect
what I have promised by a power exceeding all imagi-
nable wants. But you may ask now by what machi-
neries can all the various purposes in view be affected
in applying this power ? Machineries are but tools.
The possibility of contriving tools for any certain pur-
pose cannot be questioned. They may be of various
constructions for the same purposes. If we have suffi-
cient power and materials for the tools to be applied,
we may easily contrive and shape the tools as we please,
and as they suit our purpose. There is no reason to
deem the making of adapted tools for certain purposes
impossible. I, for one, shall resolve this problem in a
very simple manner for all announced purposes. I
shall speak of that hereafter.

I come now to the statement of the second power : viz,

THE POWER OF THE TIDE.

The tide is a continual change of ebb and flow, or

20

rise and fall at every six and a quarter hours nearly,
throughout the ocean, though not equal in all parts of
it, nor at all times in the same parts. It varies from two
feet near the equator, to sixty feet towards the poles.

To form a conception of the power which the tide
affords, let us imagine a surface of 100 miles square, or
10,000 square miles somewhere in the ocean, where
the tide rises and sinks, in an average, ten feet. — How
many men would it require for emptying a basin of
10,000 square miles of area, and ten feet deep, filled
with sea water nsix and a quarter hours, and filling the
same again in six and a quarter hours? — Whether
this be caused by the gravity of the moon, or by labour
of men, the effect and requisite power is the same.

Experience teaches, that a common labouring man
may raise twenty pounds two feet at every second by
continual labour. To empty a basin ten feet deep, the
labourer would in the beginning have but little to raise,
but he would have to raise the water higher and higher
in proportion he would get nearer to the bottom of the
vessel, till at the end of ten feet high. His labour
would, therefore, be equal, by the best contrivance, to
the raising of the content of the basin five feet high.
K one man raises twenty pounds two feet at every
second, he can raise the same five feet at every two
seconds and a half, and one cubic foot of sea water
in about eight or nine seconds, five feet ; but for the
sake of round numbers, say at every seven and a
half seconds, or eight cubic feet at every minute,
which would amount to 3000 cubic feet at every six
and a quarter hours. Suppose a geographical mile to
be about 6000 feet long, one square mile consequently

21

equal to thirty-six millions of square feet ; and this
area would, hy a depth of ten feet, eontain a mass of
water of 360,000,000 cuhic feet. Allowing 3000
cubic feet for every man, the raising of such a mass
would require then 120,000 men.

To fill the same basin to the same height again in
the next ensuing six and a quarter hours, would re-
quire again tlie same power; and so on continually.
But as men cannot work continually during the whole
twenty-four hours, but hardly one-half of the time,
this work would require the double of that number for
releasing each other. Hence a power to that effect of
240,000 men for one square mile. 10,000 square
miles of the ocean would, therefore, require, for pro-
ducing the eflect of a tide of ten feet, at least
2400,000,000 men, which is nearly five times as
many as there exists on earth. Suppose the United
States to have a coast of 3000 miles, and this power
to be applicable for but 100 miles distance from the
coast in an average, which would be an area of
300,000 square miles, and, consequently, afford a power
of thirty times 2400,000,000, or 72,000,000,000 men.

You wiW ask now : how is this power to be rendered
applicable ?

There have been made applications of this power,
though very rarely and only by mere accident. When
vessels run upon ground at the time of low water, they
wait for high water, which will lift them up and make
them afloat again ; what else could not be done, except
by unloading the vessel or raising it by a power equal
to tlie weight of the vessel and cargo, with which it
lies upon the ground. Thus, what sometimes would

22

require a power of several hundred ton?, is effected by
the tide. Suppose, for instance, a vessel, or ark, of
100 feet square, and sunk ten feet deep into water, just
touching- the ground at high water ; the ensuing ebb to
be ten feet. The vessel will then be entirely out of the
water. Having been loaded with a weight so as to
sink it ten feet deep into the water, its weight must
equal to that of a mass of water 100 feet square, and ten
feet high, which will be 100,000 cubic feet : suppose one
cubic foot of water to weigh seventy pounds, the weight
would be 7,000,000 pounds, which would be required
to lift the vessel, and which the tide will effect of
itself.

To give a clear idea how this power may be rendered
applicable in a general way, I will state a simple
contrivance for example. Imagine a chest or box one
foot square and ten feet high, consequently ten cubic
feet, fastened at one end of a balance, whose centre be
supported or fastened by a chain, or in some other
manner, either on shore, or at the bottom of the sea,
and whose other end may bear a weight, or be con-
nected with some machinery to be operated upon.
The box be loaded with a weight j ust sufficient to sink
it entirely into the water. Suppose further the other
end of the balance be now fastened ; the low water
begin and sink gradually ten feet, immediately with this
sinking the weight of the box begins to draw at the
balance ; but being made fast, it cannot yield, and the
weight of the box increases in proportion the water
sinks around it. At the end of the period, when the
whole box is out of the water, the whole weight of it,
i. e. often cubic feet of water, will draw at the balance.

23

When tlie balance is loosened, tlie box will thus lift at
the other end a weight nearly equal to that often cubic
feet of water. But as the box, by its sinking, will
touch again the water, it will lose of its weight in pro-
portion it sinks deeper into the water, till the whole
weight at the balance will finally be annihilated when
ten feet deep, and hence the effect will be but the half
of the power raising uniformly ten cubic feet of water
ten feet high. Now, at the period of the flow, the
box will in the same manner be raised as was the
weight at the other end of the balance before, and
the latter end will be pressed down with a weight
nearly equal to tliat of the box. Thus the balance
may be kept moving up and down, like that of a steam-
engine, only with that difference, that this motion
would be slow, and at every six and a quarter hours
but once, with a weight equal to that often cubic feet
of water lifted five feet high, for one square foot of
surface. But if we take, instead of a box of one square
foot, a vessel of 100 feet square, i. e. 10,000 times as
large, the power will be 10,000 times as great as the
former. We may then easily remedy the slowness of
the power, and give it any celerity by some contri-
vance or other, by a few wheels, or hydraulic press,
by causing a stream through a narrow passage, &c.
If required, we might either employ larger vessels or
a number of smaller ones, operating one after another
upon the same machinery. This power is applicable
on sea, near to or at any distance from the shore,
even in midst of the ocean, provided some part of the
contrivance can be connected, either by support or by
chains &c. anchored on the ground. As we do not

24

know yet the greatest depth of the ocean, it is not for
me now to tell, how far the application of this power
may be extended, tljough it may possibly be made co-
extensive with the whole ocean, by means which the
immense powers of nature aflbrd. However, the ap-
plication of the tide being by establishments fixed on
the ground, it is natural to begin with them near the
shores in shallow water, and upon sands which may
be extended gradually farther into the sea. 'fbe shores
of the continent, and of islands and the sands being
generally surrounded by shallow water, not exceeding
50 to 100 fathoms in depth, for twenty to fifty till 100
miles and upwards, the coasts of North America, with
its extensive sand-banks, islands, and rocks, may easily
afford, for this purpose, a ground of about 3000 miles
long, and in an average 100 miles broad, or 300,000
square miles, v. ith a power of 240,000 men per square
mile, as stated at ten feet's tide, of 72,000 millions of
men, or fur every mile of length of the coast a power
of twenty-four millions of men. What an enormous
power ! And this power may be rendered higlily be-
neficial for men, without occupying even any room on
dry land. In what manner? it will be asked. To
answer this question now, it will have the appearance
of fairy tales ; and reserving the answer, the state-
ment of this gigantic power will appear useless. I
will, therefore, give here some slight notice of its
applications ; though perhaps not one-thousandth part
of it may be wanted at our time, yet it will serve to
remove the narrow conceptions, prejudices, and all
apprehension of having not enough means for any pur-
pose that will come into question hereafter. We have

25

to accustom ourselves to conceive a state of things,
that must and will be the consequence of the applica-
tion of these means, quite different from what we are
wont to see.

Rafts of any extent, fastened on the ground of the
sea along the shore, stretching far into the sea, covered
witli fertile soil, bearing vegetables and trees of any
description, the linest gardens equal to those the dry
land may admit of, covered with buildings and ma-
chineries, which )nay operate not only on the sea, where
they are, but which also, by means of mechanical con-
nexions, extend their operations for many miles into
the continent. Thus this power may cultivate the
artilicial soil for many miles upon the surface of the
sea near the shores, and for several miles on the dry
land along the shore, in the most superior manner
imaginable: it may build cities along the shore, con-
sisting of the most magnificent palaces, every one
being surrounded by gardens and the most delightful
sceneries; it may level the hills or unevennesses, or
raise eminences along the shore, for enjoying open
prospects into the country and upon the sea; it may
cover the barren shore with fertile soil, and beautify the
same in various manners ; it may clear the sea from
the shallows, and make easy the approach, not merely
of vessels, but of large floating islands, which may
come from and go to distant parts of the world,
islands that have every commodity and security for
their inhabitants as may afford the dry land. All such
things, and many others, which may seem now to be
but extravagant fancies, require nothing but the raw

D

26

materials for their construction, and these are to be
found in plenty.

Thus may a power, derived from the gravity of the
moon and the ocean, hitherto but the object of idle
curiosity of the studious man, be made eminently
subservient for creating the most delightful abodes
along the coast, where men may enjoy in the same
time all advantages of sea and dry land. The coasts
may be hereafter continual paradisaical skirts between
land and sea, every where crowded with the densest
population. The shores, and the sea along them, will
be no more as raw nature presents them now, but they
will be every where of easy and charming access, not
even molested by the roars of waves, shaped as it may
suit the purposes of their inhabitants ; the sea will be
cleared of every obstruction of free passage every
where; its productions in fishes, &c. will be gathered
in large appropriated receptacles, to present them to
the inhabitants of the shores and of the sea.

There is yet another power on sea of equal, if not
of greater importance : it is the power of the waves,
caused by the impression of the wind upon the surface
of the water. Though this power is included in that
of wind, and is therefore comprehended in the estima-
tion of this power as stated ; and though, generally, it
cannot exceed the power of wind, being but a reaction
of it, yet it may be rendered very useful in cases where
no wind or much less power of the same exists. The
sea, when once disturbed in its equilibrium, continues
for several days in its motion after the wind has sub-
sided, like a pendulum or a flying wheel when put in

27

motion. This motion of the sea is not confined to the
place where the wind just blows, but it extends itself
over the whole surface of the ocean until it meets with
some resistance. We have an image, on a small scale,
of this motion, when we drop a stone into a pond. We
see then a circular ring arising round the spot where
the stone dropped into it. This ring is again succeeded
by another around it, this second by a third, and so on
with larger and larger rings extending finally over the
whole pond. The nature of this motion is thus ex-
plained : — The stone forces a mass of water out of its
place, which is equal to the body of the stone ; but the
water all around it pressing with its weight against it,
the removed water recedes in that direction where the
resistance is the least, that is, right upwards, or per-
pendicularly to the surface. But here the water presses
now with a greater weight, being risen higher than
the next surrounding water. This again cannot yield
immediately on account of the pressure of its sur-
rounding water ; so it must move in that direction
where the resistance is the least, this is, perpendicu-
larly up to the surface ; forming, consequently, a ring.
I n the same manner, and for the same reason, this ring
forms a second ring around it, and so every succeeding
one. The formation of these rings affects the water
nut deeper than the rings themselves are high ; for if
it did, it would raise the water higher than it was it-
self, which is impossible. For the same reason the
interval of any two rings next to each other cannot
be larger than the rings themselves, and the basis of
these must join each other; for if the intervals were
larger, the rings would move water to the sides, where

28

it cannot recede on account of the greater resistance.
Therefore, if, for instance, the rings he one inch high,
they cannot affect the water deeper than one inch ;
and if their basis be two inches broad, the distar>ce of
the top of any two rings next to each other cannot be.
more than two inches. The sura of the room of tlie
intervals must be equal to the sum of the room of the
rings, if a body, a ball, for instance, of ten feet in
diameter, be sunk with sufficient quickness into the
water, it will raise a ring ten feet high,' this a concen-
trical ring of the same height, then a third, (Sec, leav-
ing always an interval of equal breadth, and affecting
thus the water not deeper than ten feet. What here
is done by the weight of the body, is effected in the*
same manner by the pressure of the wind in the forma-
tion of the waves; if the wind would give but one
single blow upon still water, the effect would be ex-
actly the same ; but as it is blowing in a very irregu-
lar manner, dashing in many places at once and in
succession upctn the water, the waves caused by wind
must move and rise very irregularly, following, how-
ever, the direction of the wind. But whatever the
irregularity of these motions be, the laws of nature are
always the same, that is, the waves cannot affect the
water deeper than they are high, and the intervals
carmot be larger than the waves themselves. Thus
waves of from ten to twenty feet high will affect the
water generally not deeper than from ten to twenty
feet. This is confirmed too by the experiences of
divers.

This motion being but near the surface, the applica-
tion of this power requires no connexion with the

' 29

ground, but can be made operative by a certain con-
trivance of connecting the macliinery with the lower
depth of still water.

The motions of the water are swinging like a pen-
dulum, and subject to the same'law as the swinging
of a pendulum, but counteracted in part by the pres-
sure of the wind and of eacli other. Allowing in an
average- for each swinging of waves of ten feet four
seconds, or. fifteen in every minute, which will be
slower than reality shows, we may form an idea of
this power, in the same manner as for the tide's power
is stated.

The computation shows, that a tide of ten feet affords
lor every square mile, or 6000 feet square, a power of
240,000 men at every six and a quarter hours' rise or fall.
The waves caused by wind, supposed to rise or fall at every
minute fifteen times, or at every six and a quarter hours,
5775 times, that is, about 6000 times as quick as the
tide, the power would, consequently, be a,s many times
great. But the waves of the wind leaving always
intervals equal to the waves, the quantity of the waves
is but the half of what the tide raises, and the power,
therefore,amountsto3000times240,000, or 720,000,000
of men's power. But covering the surface of the sea
with any large square, it would obstruct the motions of
the water, and be affected only along the wind-sides.
Tlie resistance which is to be opposed to the motions
of the waves is, therefore, to be but linear, that is, by
long and narrow bodies receiving the motions of the
waves from one side. For instance, a vessel 200 feet
long and 50 feet broad would be fully affected by such
waves, as experiences show by ships of the first rank.
d2

30

But be it only twenty-five feet broad, its area would be
5000 square ftct. This is l-7200tli part of one square
mile, calculated at 36,000,000 square feet. 7-^0,000,000
of men's power, as the power for one square mile,
divided by 7200, gives 100,000 men's power for the
area of the supposed vessel, being a square 200 feet
long and 50 feet broad. The size of such a vessel
would not equal to that of a ship of the first rank.
Vessels may sail at the rate of fifteen miles per hour.
A ship of the first rank propelled solely by the power of
steam, might require an engine of about 200 horses,
for to run at the rate of seven miles and a half in the
high sea, a usual rate. To run fifteen miles, would
require then 800 horses' power; for theory and prac-
tice teach that the power is to be increased in the
ratio of the square of the respective velocity. So a
double velocity requires a quadruple power, and a
treble velocity a power nine times as great. If we can
apply a power of 100,000 men, or 10,000 horses, for
propelling such a vessel, we may move it with a pro-
digious celerity. If we suppose but 64,000 men's
power, or an engine of 3200 horses' power, as the
half of the former, with continual eff'ect, that is, four
times as much as the power for the velocity at the
rate of fifteen miles per hour, it would then have
power for the rate of thirty miles per hour ; this
would amount in twenty-four hours to 720, and in
four days to nearly 3000 miles, the distance of Europe
from America.

We need not be surprised at the stated power, when
we observe how ships from 1 to 2000 tons are borne
up and down by waves, and tossed powerfully in every

31

direction witliin a few seconds. What power of men
would it require to raise witli tlie same swiftness such
heavy weights? This \\ill give us, at least, an im-
pression of this power.

Though the waves are not always ten feet high, they
are often twenty to thirty feet high, yet the sea is never
quiet : huge masses of water are almost continually
rising and falling, though there be no wind for many
days. We observe an almost continual violent break-
ing of waves or surf along steep rocks.

Suppose the average height of waves to be half, or
even one-third, of what is stated, there would still be
power enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean in four to six
days by this sole power, without any addition of that
of wind or steam. What is true of one vessel is
equally applicable to many hundreds when joined
together, with this great advantage, however, that the
foremost vessels, if closely joined in long rows fol-
lowing each other, or all in one piece, will only have
to cut the water, while those behind have only to over-
come a comparatively very small friction of the water
along their sides. Thus ten vessels following each
other closely joined as in one piece, may require but
the double of the power of one, while they afford the
means of ten times as great a power. Several rows
may be joined together in front, and form thus a float-
ing island. But such an island need not be composed
of vessels ; it may be constructed of solid logs of wood,
which is specifically lighter than water, and which,
therefore, can never sink, though they should be
wrecked. Such an island, having the proper form,

32

laiij move at the rate of 1000 miles per day, and
cross the ocean, to a certainty, in three or four days.
The island may be covered with fertile soil in the
highest cultivation, buildings, and every thing that
men may want for their enjoyment and commodity.
There will be no motion felt like on ships.

The same power will enable any single vessel or
floating island to stand still at will under all circum-
stances, against wind and waves, without anchoring.
This affords, thereby, means for telegraphical lines
across the ocean from one continent to another, and to
send intelligence over the same in less than one hour.

These are but hints, how many may rule over the
ocean without any danger or any incommodity to him-
self, how he may convert the tremendous powers and
motions of the sea to the most salutary effects and
to the greatest gratifications of his desires and curio-
sity ; how he may live and roam, in all imaginable
enjoyments of life, in the most salubrious climates of
the world ; for it is known that the atmosphere upon
the ocean is temperate and the most salubrious, even
within the tropical zone ; and how he may make thus,
not some certain fixed spot of the earth, but the whole
world, his delightful home.

May this idea be considered as a mere fancy or as
something, that only a remote posterity may live to
see? No, it is within our reach within less than
ten years. The accomplishment of such purposes re-
quires nothing but the raw materials for them, that is
to say, iron, copper, wood, earth chiefly, and a union
of men, whose eyes and understanding are not shut

33

up by preconception?. It is, however, not meant
liere to begin with such projects, but to precede them
with enterprises .of closer interest.

I have now to state a third power, to be derived
from sunshine.

When a common flat looking-glass is held towards
the sun, so as to reflect its shine into an opposite
sliady place, it will be felt, or observed by the ther-
mometer, that this reflected shine is warmer than
the shade, and nearly as warm as the sunshine itself.
When upon the same reflected sunshine another re-
flection from a second looking-glass is cast iii the same
manner, the spot of reflection will be still warmer ;
for the second looking-glass has the same cff'ect as the
first, and must, consequently, increase the heat on the
spot where both reflections meet. When, then, a third
looking-glass is directed again so as to cast its reflection
of sunshine upon the same spot at the same time, the
heat will increase still more. Thus, by a fourth, fifth,
sixth, &c. looking-glass, the heat may be increased to
any required or known degree; nothing else is required
but asuflicient number of looking-glasses, or reflectors
of any material, to produce any heat.

It is on this principle that artificial burning mirrors
are constructed on a small scale. And it is on the
same principle, that Archimedes, about 2000 years ago,
contrived his burning mirrors, as history tells us.

The idea is very simple. There is no peculiar art
or contrivance required. We need not just looking-
glasses for these purposes: any thing with a polished
surface answers the same purpose, be it of glass,
metal, \vood, stone, even straw, paper, linen, &c,, pro-

34

vided it be polished or shining. There are many
various means for rendering a surface sliining, if it is
not so by nature ; varnishing, rubbing, pressing, (Sec.
may effect it on various stuffs ; in fact, any thing
that makes a surface quite smooth, such as oil, water,
any liquid material, that hardens or congeals, poured
upon a surface ; any hard material, stone, metal, wood,
maybe polished, and rendered fit for ihis purpose, by a
proper friction. It is immaterial, too, of what size,
form, or colour the pieces of such a mirror be ; they
are all to be of a flat surface. There is no curbature
of their surface required like in the usual burning
mirrors. All what is required for producing a focus,
or burning spot, where all the reflections are concen-
trated, is to give to each flat piece of such mirrors its
proper place and inclination towards the sun. This
requires no laborious computation or preparation ; but
nothing more than an adapted contrivance for fixing
every piece, and turning it until its reflection meets
the destined spot. When once fixed, the whole con-
trivance is fixed for ever, and requires nothing more
than its proper stand opposite the sun, which may be
kept either by a machine, or by a man, in moving the
mirror to the sun's motion for casting its concentrated
reflection or focus always upon the same spot. The
size of the burning mirror depends, from the degree
of heat that is required, from the size of the focus,
or burning spot, which again is depending from the
size of the machinery upon which it is to operate,
and, finally from the distance of the focus from the
mirror. If, for instance, a focus of two feet square,
that is, four square feet, were required, the burning

35

mirror might be constructed of pieces of flat mirrors
of less than two feet square, considering that its
reflection will increase in size by the distance of it.
Suppose such a mirror consisting of 100 pieces one
above another in a row, and 100 such rows alongside
of each other, every single piece in its proper situa-
tion, the whole mirror would be less than 200 feet
in diameter and have 100 times 100, or 10,000 flat
mirrors. The heat in the focus would, consequently,
be nearly 10,000 times as great as the reflection of one
single piece, which would be a prodigious heat, and
probably greater than any ever known. It is a fact of
experiments, that small artificial burning mirrors may
produce a greater heat than any fire in the hottest
foundery. We shall not need such a heat for the pur-
poses in view. A heat sufiicient to boil water would
do already ; and for such a heat we need not one-hun-
dredth part of what is stated ; and a burning mirror
of one-hundredth of the mentioned size, that is, from
ten to twenty feet in diameter, might answer. How-
ever, we are under no limit for producing any quantity
and degree of heat by this means.

The application of burning mirrors is, as will be
already anticipated, for boiling water and producing
thereby steam.

The advantages of this application are chiefly these;
no material is consumed, consequently, no expenses
and no labours for preparing and carrying the same
to the spot of use are required ; moreover, no labour
for keeping the fire is requisite. The machinery may
be contrived so, that it operates of itself, whenever the
sun shines, without even as much as a supcriutendence

36

of men. All material that is required is water, and of
that there is no want any where. I am alluding not
only to the springs, rivers, and seas, hut also to the
water which is every where to be found under the
ground, if wells are sunk sulhciently deep. So there
is no exception in the application of burning mirrors
for producing steam. But it will now be objected, that
there is not always sunshine, that the nights and
cloudy or foggy weather interrupt the effect.

To obviate such interruptions, there are two ways.

1. By enveloping the boilers with stuffs that keep
the heat the longest in themselves; for instance, a
thick coat of red-hot iron, or other hot metal, enve-
loped in a thick coat of clay, loam, sand, or other
earthen material. We might thus continue a heat
sufhcient to boil water for many hours after the sun
has ceased to shine, without consuming any material.

2. By contriving a reacting power, caused by the
power of the steam, of which hereafter will be given
the description, and by which many days, and even
many months, the power of steam, caused by sun-
shine, may react at will, and thus be rendered perpe-
tual, no matter how often or how long the sunshine
may be interrupted

The interruption of sunshine, in this application,
is therefore immaterial.

To form an estimation of this power, in its utmost
possible extent, would exceed all bounds of our ima-
gination ; for the requisite stuffs for rendering this
posver operative are but water and sunshine, which
are co-extensive with the whole world. The appli-
cation of this power requires but the confining of

37

steam in cohesive solid material, wliicli must not just
be iron or other metals, though they are the most con-
venient ; hut stone, cast or moulded in a manner here-
after to he described, may answer the same purpose.
We are, therefore, under no limit as to the materials
for engines neither.

To conceive how, instead of iron or other metals,
stone may be used, I will state here one of the most
simple construction of a steam-engine on a larger scale
than hitherto used.

Suppose a shaft, cylindrical or square (quadrilate-
ral), of stone in one solid piece of sufficient thickness,
sunk vertically into the earth ; at the upper end closed
by a strong cover of iron, or other metal, or stone, for-
tified by cross bars, a stone tightly fitted in the shaft,
so as to be smoothly moveable up and down, con-
nected by a piston or bar with the cud of a l)a-
lance ; when this stone is near the u])per end of the
shaft, water pours into the interval between the stone
and the cover of the shaft, which cover is to be heated
immediately by being in the focus of the burning mir-
ror; and converted into steam, the stone at the piston
is now forced down the shaft by the expansion of the
steam above it, and the air or steam underneath passes
through a valve at the lower end of the shaft. When
after this the stone moves up in the shaft, the steam
above takes its vent through another valve at the
upper end of the shaft. A second shaft of the same
contrivance, whose piston is connected with the other
end of the balance, alternates with the first in the
same manner. Thus the water is alternately streaming
in the one or the other interval between the moveable

£

38

stone at the piston in the shaft and its cover, at every
motion of the balance.

There is this difference, in heating the water, from
the common way, that here the focus of the burn-
ing mirror operates more powerfully than fire, and
more uniformly, and by giving to the interval between
the stone and cover, serving instead of a boiler, a pro-
per shape, the water in it is to be heated momenta-
neously; this is effected by presenting a flat, extensive
surface to the heat of the focus, and so much the smaller
a depth of water. The details of such an engine
need not here be described. By such a contrivance
the full power of the hottest steam can be brought to
application, by the least quantity of materials for the
engine.

The power of steam may thus be rendered far
greater than in the usual application.

There is no power ever so great for any mechanical
purpose, that cannot be produced by steam. A short
sketch of what experiments have proved, will show
this.

The power of steam is generally compared to the
pressure of the atmosphere, and this is taken for a mea-
sure. To understand the meaning of this expression,
it is necessary to be acquainted with the elements of
aerology. Some readers may not have directed their
attention to this subject, and it may, therefore, not be
superfluous here, to give briefly an idea of it, inas-
much as it relates to the statement I have in view.

The air that surrounds the earth, or atmosphere, is
an ocean of a ponderable fluid, which, although very
thin or light, yet, by its extensive height of many

39

miles, presses with its weight upon the surface of the
earth, like water in a vessel, river, or sea, will do upon
its bottom. We do not immediately feel or perceive
this weight or pressure of the atmosphere, because it
presses equally in the inside and on the outside of our
own body, and so on every other body or matter. But
as soon as we destroy the equilibrium of this pressure by
any artificial means, we discover the effect of this pres-
sure, or weight, and may measure it perfectly. When
we, for instance, take a pipe thirty feet and upwards
long, in a vertical position, closed at the lower end,
and open at the upper end, lill it w ith water, and turn
it, in a proper manner, upside down, that is, tlie closed
end uppermost, the water in it will not fall out alto-
gether through the lower end, but remain about thirty
feet high in the pipe suspended, though the lower end
is open, and whatever be the diameter or width of the
pipe. The reason of this phenomenon is, that the
atmosphere presses with an equal weight against the
lower end of the pipe, while at the upper one the same
is intercepted by the closure of the pipe; which ap-
pears to be true as soon as the upper end is opened
when the water immediately rushes out of the pipe, the
e(|uilibrium being then restored at both ends of the
pipe.

This experiment shows, in the same time, that the
atmosphere presses upon the surface of the earth, and
any thing that is thereupon, with a weight equal to
that of an ocean of water about thirty feet high.

The air, being elastic, may be compressed into a
smaller room, and will then always resist with an ex-
pansive power equal to thatapplied for its compression.

40

Thus, when air is compressed into a room lialf as large
as it was before, its rc.sistar.ee will be twice r.s i^reat as
it was before; but being before counterbalanced by
the pressure of the atmosphere, and therefore rot per-
cepti1)le, it will now in its compressed state show a
resistance equal to that of the pressure of the atmo-
sphere. When air is compressed into one-third, one-
fourth, &c. of its former room, it will resist with a
power of expansion three, four. Sic. times that of the
pressure of the atmosphere ;and the expansive power
would be called three, four. Sec. atmospheres.

Steam is also elastic, and its expansive power, when
confined, is thus measured and expressed by the num-
ber of atmospheres that would counterbalance it. To
find, the weight in pounds, which would counterba-
lance a certain power of steam, the weight of a water
column about thirty feet high, with a basis equal to
that on which the steam is to operate, is to be found,
and this to be multiplied by the number of atmo-
spheres, that equal to the power of steam. If, for
instance, a steam power of 100 atmospheres is to
operate upon a piston of one square foot of surface
exposed to the steam, the pressure or power of the
steam will equal to the weight of a water column
having for its basis one square foot, and being thirty
times 100, or 3000 feet high. Now, for the sake of
round numbers, suppose a water column of thirty feet
in height and one square foot for its basis, that is,
thirty cubic feet of w ater to be equal to 20,000 pounds,
the pressure of 100 atmosph'^rcs upon one square
foot would be equal to 2000 times 100, or 200,000
pounds.

41

The expansive power of steam is not always the
same, but increases uniformly with the increase of
heat, when the quantity of applied water and the room
of confinement remain the same.

Experiments have shown, that the pressure of steam
is, by eighty degrees Reaumur, or the heat of boiling
water, equal to one jvtmosphere, or about 2000 pounds
on one square foot.

By .97 degr. 11. 2 atmospheres.

' 108 3

116,5 4

124 5 ;

130 6

135 7

140 8

148 10

270 100

300 150

370 309

400 400

440 547

460 631

600 820

680 2004

800 30S0

1000 5316

The pressure on one square foot being about 2000
pounds for one atmosphere, the pressure ai 1 000 de-
grees K. of 5316 atmospheres, is equal to 10,630,000
pounds on one square foot.

If there is no substance more, the expansive power
e2

42

increases unirovmly, at every degree R. of increased
heat, with 0,0047 pressure of one atmosphere.

With burning mirrors we may produce any Icnown
degree of heat, without consuming any material.
1000 degrees R. is yet a moderate heal ; there is, heat
used in founderies and laboratories of 16,000 degrees
R. and upwards. If 1000 degrees R. may produce
a steam with a pressure of more than 5000 atmospheres,
or upwards of 10,000,000 of pounds upon one square
foot; and if we suppose the surface exposed to the
immediate effect of steam of ten feet square, or 100
square feet, and the motion of the piston at the rate
of but two feet at every second ; we woukl liave a
power equal to a weight of 100 times 10,000,000 of
pounds, or 1000 millions of pounds, moving or rising
at the rateof two feet per second. Experience teaches
that a common labourer is able, by steady work, to raise
twenty pounds two feet per second ; consequently,
a power of 1000 millicms of pounds, with the same
rate of motion, is equal to 1,000,000,000 divided by
20, or 50,000,000 of men's power. If we allow but
six hours' sunshine every day in an average, and twelve
hours' time for work for men, that power would
still equal to 25,000,000 of men's power. But this in-
stance shows, that we are under no limit of power for
any purpose we may conceive, and that this power re-
quires comparatively but little room in its application.

You may perhaps startle at the idea of immense ex-
penses and materials for such a powerful engine. But
here I have to recall to your mind what I have stated
already concerning the construction of steam-engines;
namely, we need no metals and no other expensive

43

materials for ihc engine?, tlioiigh iron and otlicr cohe-
sive metals are most convenient. The pipes, or rooms
of confinement for the steam, may be made of one
solid stone, cast or moulded, and baked to a hardness
and consistency equal to the best stone to be found, of
any thickness that may be required, and sunk into the
ground. The head of the piston may consist of the
same material. The piston itself and the cover may
preferably be of iron. The baking of such stones is
an olijcct of the sequel of my proposals.

However, there is iron in plenty over the whole
world ; nothing is more universally spread in nature
than iron : almost all stuffs are more or less impreg-
nated with iron. Places of several square miles are full
of iron ore. And though we have not explored one-
hundredth part of the surface of the earth in that re-
spect, yet wc have it at a cheapness little exceeding
the expenses for labour in digging, preparing, and
transporting it; and this price would be reduced soon
to a trifle, could we save the human labour for procur-
ing it, raid substitute labour by powers that cost us
nothing, as the case really is to be proved. We have
as yet used but a very small poriion of the immense
store of iron that is discovered already in nature; and
most probably, there is an nncomparatively greaterstore
yet to be discovered. So there is no matter of doubt,
that we are fully provided with tliis metal for all our
possible mechanical purposes. lint say, we be not for
future times ; then we may substitute this mrlal by
other materials, as mentioned.

The power of steam is therefore suitjcct to no limits,
its requisites being sunshine, water, and solid stuffs for

44

confining and applying the steam, of which there is
no limit, no materials heing consumed.

The generating of steam-power is not the only use
to be made of burning mirrors ; they may be applied
also to various other purposes of great importance, as
I shall show hereafter.

Havel asserted too much, when promising to show
that there are powers in nature million times greater
than the whole human race is able to effect by their
united efforts of nerves and sinew s ?

The power of steam and the power of wind may be
applied over the whole globe, land and seas, either si-
multaneously or alternately, as found convenient. The
three gigantic powers of steam, wind, and waves may
be applied on the high sea, simultaneously, or one or
two of them in the failure of others. The four powers
of steam, wind, waves, and tide, are at once at our
disposal along the coasts and upon shallows of the
ocean ; there will never be an entire stop of all at
once. There are parts of the ocean where clouds
and fogs with wind are, and other parts where a clear
sky wiih calms are prevailing: in the former, we have
wind and waves ; in the latter, sunshine for burning
mirrors at our disposal. Jn making use of one or the
other power, just as chance affords, we are enabled to
cross the ocean in any direction with floating islands,
at the rate of 1000 miles per day, in all commodities
and enjoyments, that may be found on land, w ithout
any danger. How to create rivulets of sweet and
wholesome water on floating islands in the midst of
the ocean, will be no riddle now. Sea-water changed
into steam will distil into sweet water, leaving the

45

salt on the bottom. Thus the steam-engines on float-
ing" ishmds for their propulsion, and other mechanical
])urposes, will serve in the same time for distillery of
sweet water, whicli, collected in basins, may be led
tljrough channels over the island, while, where re-
quired, it may be refrigerated by artificial means into
cool water, surpassing in salubrity the best spring
water, because nature hardly ever distils so purely
water of itself, without some admixture of stuffs of less
wholesome influence on the human body, as it may
be done here artificially.

I have as yet stated but the chief and most univer-
sal pow ers in nature, that are playing before our eyes
without any benefit for men hitherto; which are to be
applied without consuming any material ; ihey are de"
rived, as has been seen, from the motions of the atmo-
sphere, from sunshine, and from the motions of the
sea, caused by the gravity of the moon or by wind.
But these arc not the only powers of nature that may
be brought to our disposal ; there are many others,
though less universal and less important, whicli I shall
at present not notice, as my object of showing that
there is power enough, and superabundant fcr all pur-
poses in view, is gained.

The statement can be made but in a general way,
and no minutely-defined results can be expected in
this new and universal matter, nor would it be of any
utility. The question is not, whether the stated powers
may be somewhat less or more than stated, but
wlicthcr they arc of such a gigantic magnitude as to
afford a sulHciency for all our wants. If the statement
of the powers had rc>ulted in a Isirc sufficiency for the

46

grand purposes in view, it would be material to ascer-
tain, if possible, whether there might not be some
small error, some inaccuracy, or some exaggeration in
the statement of experiments ; but when it proves, by
generally known facts, or well authenticated experi-
ments, that there are, at the least estimation, thousand,
and probably ten thousand times greater powers than
we ever may possibly want, all doubts or apprehen-
sions about insufficiency of powers must vanish for ever,
and the mind be at ease on that account. It is for
this purpose that I have endeavoured to state the
whole extent of the powers to be applied for the great
purposes in view. It is but owing to the narrow con-
ceptions, to the inattention in respect to the things in
nature, that may really be applied to the improvement
of the human condition, to most deplorable prejudices
in which we are generally trained up, and in which
even the learned pass^ their lives, that proposals like
mine may appear fabulous.

The studious, the reflecting mind will soon discover
the connexions between the means and the effects to
be produced thereby. But there will be also men, who
are so ill favoured by nature, that they slovenly adhere
to their accustomed narrow notions, without inquiring
into the truth of new ideas, and will rather, in apology
for their mental sloth, pride themselves in despising,
disputing, and ridiculing whatever appears novel to
them.

We have superabundance of power, powers without
limits, million times greater than all men on earth
could effect hitherto: this is proved : does it become to
a rational man to continue looking with apathy and

47

dulness at tliem ? — Has he not seen and learned enougli
of experiments in machineries in our days, to rouse
his mind to be alive at the great advantages they may
afford more and more? — Will, at the contemplation of
those gigantic powers that cost nothing to men, no
new light dawn in the mind ?

Nature plays with these mighty powers before our
eyes in the most irregular way. To apply them im-
mediately upon machineries for certain final purposes,
-would subject the latter to great irregularities and in-
terruptions. It is probably owing to this circumstance,
that men have made so little application of them as
yet. Thiese inconveniences will be remedied in put-
ting a medium between the powers and their final ap-
plication, in order to convert them into uniform opera-
lions, or, in other words, into perpetual motions with
uniform powers. As we have superabundant powers, '
irregular as they be, we may then create perpetual mo-
tions with any power that may be wanted, and any
"where.

To effect this purpose, we have to cause a re-action
of the power of wind, steam, &c. An image of re-
action gives us the weight of a clock being wound up.
The sinking of this weight is the re-action of the wind-
ing it up. It is not just necessary to wait with wind-
ing up the weight till it is entirely sunk down ; but it
may be wound up at any time partly or totally ; and
if done always before the weight reaches the bottom,
the clock will be going perpetually. In a similar,
though not in the same way, we may cause are-action
on a large scale. We may raise, for instance, water
by the immediate application of wind or steam, upon

4S

some eminence into a pond, out of wliicli llie water
may, ilnougli .an outlet, fall upon some wluel or
other contrivance for setting some machinery agoing-.
Thus we may store up water in some eminent pond,
and take out of this store, at any time, as much water
through the outlet as we want to employ, by which
means the original power may re-act for many days
after it has cejised.

To form a proper idea, how long and how great a
power may be rendered re-active m this way, it will
be necessary to specify some cases here.

Suppose an elevation of ground about 100 feet high
above the adjacent ground. Let this elevatibn be
1000 feet square, and surrounded by a wall twenty
feet high. liCt, from one of the lower adjacent parts,
water be raised, in the most convenient way, hymen.
From the experience that a common labourer can
raise twenty pounds two feet high per second con-
tinually working, it follows, that he could raise twenty
pounds in from fifty to sixty seconds, 100 to 120 feet
high, that is, the height of the supposed elevation
from the bottom to the top of the reservoir ; this would
nearly be one cubic foot of water raised in three
minutes to the. same height. He would, consequently,
raise in twelve hours, or in a day, 2^ cubic feet, and
in 1 00 days 24,000 cubic feet of w ater. The supposed
reservoir is capable of holding (being 1000 feet square
and twenty deep), 20,000,000 cubic feet. To fill this
reservoir in 100 days, would therefore require from
800 to 1000 men's labour. A power that would effect
the same purpose in 100 days would then be equal to
100 men's power. Jtis evident, without further de-

49

monstration, that the \^ater of tlie reservoir, by falling
down again, wouhl have the same power ; for it would,
by its fall, be able to raise the same quantity of water
' within the sanie time to the same height again, de-
ducting, however, what may be lost meanwhile by its
evapora-tion, whieh may be in general very inconsider-
able. This reservoir would, consequently, be capable,
by the fall of its water, of a re-acting power of 1000
men for 100 days, or of TO ,000 men for ten days.
A period of 100 days would exceed any continual
calm ; and therefyre be far longer than might be
wanted by the sole application of wind. A period of
ten days would be more 'than sufficient for supplying
continually the reservoir witK water, by the applica-
tion of sunshine and wind together. Such reservoirs
of moderate elevation or size need not just be made
artificially, but will be found made by nature very
frequently, requiring but little aid for their completion.
They require no reg\ilarity of form. Any valley sur-
rounded by elevations, with some lower grounds in
its vicinity, would answer the purpose. Small crevices
may be tilled up. Such places may be eligible for the
"beginning of enterprises of that kind ; but thereafter,
when the powers are rendered operative for the pur-
poses in view, ^larger and more perfect contrivances
may be made without expenses. Hills and mountains
afford natural advantages for this purpose. The
higher the reservoir the less room is required ; for the
more power with the same quantity of water will then
be effected by the greater fall. But suppose even an
entirely flat country. By the application of any of
the staled powers, we may, for instance, excavate a

F

50

large hole of from 200 to 250 feet deep, and raise,
uitli the stuff that is taken out of it, an elevation of
300 feet at its edge, so as to have then a height of
from 500 to 550 feet. Suppose this elevation to be
2000 feet square, its water 100 feet deep, its fall in
an average 400 feet ; then its re-acting power may be
brought to eighty times as great as that of the reservoir
before stated ; for its area will be four times, its depth
live times, its fall four times, and consequently its
re-acting power four times five times four times as
great as the calculation in the first case shows. If
then the former reservoir aftorded a power of 10,000
men for ten days, this will be capable of eighty times
10,000, or 800,000 men's power for ten days. Water
enough may be found at such a depth any where.
But say it were not; then we may use, instead of
water, sand, stones, earth, &c., which will have the
advantage of not evaporating, and of being heavier,
and therefore requiring less room for equal quantity
of power, while these dry materials will cause some-
what more friction than water, which, however, will
not counterbalance the advantages. The room in
which this hole and the adjacent elevation occupies is
not lost for cultivation of soil. Both surfaces may be
covered with rafts decked with fertile earth and all
kinds of vegetables, which may grow there as well as
any where else.

The re-acting power is not required for all applica-
tions, but only for such which admit of no delay, as,
for instance, cultivation of the soil in its proper season.
In other cases, and in the most of the applications it is
indifferent, at which time the machinery be operating,

51

or whether it operates continually or at intervals. In
these cases the original powers of wind or steam, &c.
may immediately be applied.

Thus the medium for rendering these powers per-
petual, or operative at will at any time, may he chiefly
confined to the cultivation of the soil.

However, if there were any occasion for rendering
the re-acting power greater, on the same room, than
exemplified, the contrivance might easily be extended
to a larger scale. For instance, an elevation of 1000
feet above the bottom of the adjacent hole, and one
square mile, or 5000 feet square, its water 400 feet
deep, with a fall of from 600 to 1000 feet, or in an
average of 800 feet, would afford for ten days a power
— compared to a reservoir 1 000 feet square, 1 00 feet
high, and its water twenty feet deep, of 10,000 men's
power — of twenty-five times twenty times eight, or
•10,000,000 men's power, a power exceeding all possi-
ble wants on such a small room.

On the high sea, and along the coasts where more
powers are concurring, and where hardly ever there is
an entire cessation of all of them, there is little or no
occasion for re-acting powers.

The raising of water or other heavy materials, as
well as the falling of the same for this purpose, may
be effected in vaiious ways, which 1 need not detail
here ; localities must suggest the most proper mecha-
nism, which, however, may be very simple in all cases.
Common water-engines suggest already all what is
here required. Both for the ascent and descent of the
materials, if the height is very considerable, one roller
at the top, and another at the bottom with a chain

52

around them, at which huckets may he fastened in a
proper manner, is sutlicient to effect the purpose. The
contrivance lor the ascent of the materials may operate
whenever nature affords a chance, that is, whenever
there is sunshine or wind ; the contrivance for tlie
descent may perpetually operate with uniform power
upou some machinery which is to be connected with it.
Both contrivances for ascent and descent may operate
without any superintendence at all, except in cases
where some alteration is to be effected.

Thus a power of many thousands or even of millions
of men may perpetually continue its play until the
machinery is worn out by length of time ; and but
one or a few men will be required to keep it in order,
and direct its application.

In stating the magnitude and regulation of the chief
inanimate powers of nature, I have stated the basis of
my vast proposals. When we see powers at our dis-
posal million times greater, at the lowest estimation,
than all our united efforts of nerves and sinews could
effect ; when we see we have it in our power to render
these powers perpetually and uniformly operative ; can
we behold this discovery with indifference? When
the first elements of mechanics teach that there is no
motion imaginable, that could not be produced by-
some adapted mechanism ; provided we have the re-
quisite power, can we, as rational men, think of these
gigantic powers without inquiring, why they should
not be applicable and not be applied for the benefit of
men? — Can it appear to a rational man any longer
strange, that with powers exceeding the human
bodily strength by ten thousands and millions of

53

times, might he effected in one year more than men
could do hitherto in thousands of years ? — Can man
with sound reasoning mind think it ahsurd, extrava-
gant, to effect things, which he was not accustomed
yet to see, hy the application of such enormous powers,
that have played idly hitherto ? — Are these powers not
sufficient to change the whole face of nature by a
general application ? — What should hinder us from
making the best use of them that we can think of,
when they cost nothing? — We know already, thai, by
a persevering industry for many centuries, a populous
nation might change a barren forest into delightful
gardens, intersected by canals for their culture, filled
with mansions of splendour and ease, and provided
with every comfort and enjoyment imaginable for
human life. Where is the reason for supposing it
impossible, to effect the same things, and more, by
powers exceeding many thousand times all possible
exertions of a whole nation for many centuries ? —
There is no reason at all in such thoughts; tliey are
nothing but a blind adherence to customary impres-
sions of minds little used to reflection. Such a stupid
adherence to customs is the most baneful and most
degrading evil of the human creature ; for it ap-
proximates man to the state of brutes, by neglecting
the most precious gift of his Maker, the reasoning
faculty, the only one that may raise him above brutes.
Brutes, too, follow the customs without reasoning.
The domestic animals, for instance, sneak to their
accustomed stables and pasture grounds, though it be
for enslaving or butchering them. ]\Ian is but little
above thes? brute, if he is but a slave to customs in

F 2

54

thinking and acting. He cannot claim even, with
any pretence, indulgence, when he is so infatuated as
to pride himself in this despicahle mental sloth. This
evil is not only to be found among the lower untutored
classes, where it is more pardonable, but also among
high-bred and high-standing gentlemen, whom I pray
to be assured, that I wish not to add any thing to the
grievous affliction under which they labour without
their suspecting it; I wish merely to diminish its
effects upon themselves and others, as a physician
will do with the sick of contagious diseases ; I will
point out the symptoms of this affliction, as a warning
that may be very useful to many ; the symptoms are
generally: the patient is very arrogant and very ready
in his judgment without giving or taking any reason,
he surmises instead of rcas'Miing, he judges before he
examines, and with all this insanity he self-pleasingly
ridicules what he does not understand — beware of
such a brute, you cannot reason with him.

If man ever forfeited the paradise by his sin, as we
are told, it must have bfe^cn the sin of neglecting the
most precious gift of his Maker, that reasoning fa-
culty, that only gives him the dominion over the
brutes, and may give him also the dominion over the
inanimate creation, and niake thereby of the earth a
paradise.

Man needs not to cat his bread in tlic sweat of his
brow, and to pass his life in drudgery and misery,
except he perseveres iiihis mental sloth, and foregoes
the use of his reason.

We are trained up in the notion, that industry is a
virtue and a necessity to man, and so it is truly— I do

not mean to apologise for, or to commend idleness
and slolli — but it is so only relative to our -present
state of knowledges ; for it is the only means to lead
a decent life in society, lo preserve us from suffering
and want, to procure us comforts, and even respect
among our neighbours. With the same reason the
savage counts it for his two most exalted virtues, to
slay many enemies and kill many beasts in his forest;
they only tend t6 his self-preservation and to that of
his family. The better cultivated man wants to have
other virtues. Useless or needless drudgery and toil
ceases to be a virtue ; more exalted qualities step into
their place, in a more relined and happier state of
men. \\ hat virtue can there be in passing one's life
like a prisoner in a treadmill ? The occupations of men
in our present state of advancement are yet not much
better: they are cither a monotonous drudgery, or
some insipid occupation, which nothing but custom
and necessity may vender tolerable in some degree,
but which are the very means to keep the mind in
inactivity, and low, trivial pursuits. 1 will not expa-
tiate on this disgusting subject, for fear of being too
prolix ; but look at the labourer of the field, at the
mechanic in the shop, at any common occupation.
How dull and tedious to pass the best part of one's
life in the same ever- repeating mechanical motions
or labours, and after they are ten thousand times re-
peated, they are ten thousand times again and again
to be done over. What is the mighty object of lead-
ing such a life? — To get money, in order to buy
what one wants. Is this the most exalted virtue, the
highest destination of man's life that can be thought

56

of in tills world? — Tt. may he a virtue or a necessary
evil in a state of general ignorance and prejudices,
but it is no virtue founded in nature.

Where did sciences end mental culture and the
refinements of human life flourish the most ? — Not
among people who passed their lives in drudgery.
The Greeks deemed mechanical work a disgrace to a
free citizen, and employed their slaves for that pur-
pose. Hence their lofty sentiments, their high state
of mental culture and refinements, superior to all
their neighbours, even to the Romans. It is to these
ancient Greeks that we owe chiefly our sciences of
reason. Look at the same country now, at the de-
scendants of the same Greeks, an ignorant, oppressed
race of men ! The sciences of their ancestors would
have been lost also for us, if not classes, devoted to
religion and dominion, who thought mechanical occu-
pation below their dignity, had preserved, by their
literary pursuits, the wrecks of those ancient superior
acquirements ; for the labouring classes, even of civi-
lised Europe, never harboured sciences, philosophy,
and refinements of human life ; they had other pur-
suits, the bare necessaries of life, which left them
neither time nor thought of higher pursuits ; happy
enough, when money could exempt them in part
from labour, physical wants, and fear of want.

It is often questioned, whether the life of a savage
in his wilderness may not be preferable to civilised
life with its appending labours and comforts?— But
it is obvious, that one savage cannot live on an area
where 100 laborious civilised men may live in plenty.
Therefore, the life of a savage ought by no means be

57

preferred. Man ought certainly be progressing, not
retrograding, in improvements; and he will naturally
be so, if not violently retarded or stopped in his course.
We are actually in a progressing state, but only since
a few centuries: men were fallen back into a state
of greater barbarity before that period, as history
proves. Ancient nations, several thousand years ago,
in Asia and Africa, were further advanced in many
knowledges than we are now ; their ruins and monu-
ments, left to us, show this. We have made improve-
ments in an increasing progression in the latter time.
This is quite natural ; for knowledge begets know-
ledge, just as wealth begets wealth. There is, how-
ever, one fault in our system of education and public
instruction up to the universities, which is an essen-
tial impediment in our mental and physical progress ;
this is, that the sciences of reason are less cultivated
than those of memory and imagination. It is owing
to this fault, handed down to us from an ancient state
of barbarity, that people generally judge so very in-
sane of any thing that appears new to them, they are
not used to reflect much, to reason closely: the most
useful knowledges of our days are cither not at all, or
but faintly come to their notice. There are but few
individuals who are versed in the knowledges of use-
ful things of our days. The science of mechanics is
but in a state of infancy. It is true, improvements
are made upon improvements, instigated by patents
of the government ; but they are made accidentally,
or at haphazard. There is no general system of this
science, mathematical as it is, which developcs its
principles in their full extent, and the outlines of

58

their application to uhicb they lead. There is no
idea of comparison between what is explored and
what is vet to be explored in this science ; no inves-
tigation of powers, and their applications for the be-
nefit of man, in all their ramifications and extents;
Nve are in a manner groping along in the dark, and
wonder at every new invention and improvement in
mcchunics. People donbt, reject, and reason at ran-
dom, with posilivcness on every thing that is new to
them, without understanding, without even troubling
themselves with examining the matter. It is thus a
liard task to inform and convince them of any thing
that may not suit their superficial or erroneous no-
tions. The ancient Greeks placed mathematics at the
head of their education, and deemed it indispensably
to a liberal education, more for teaching and accus-
toming the mind to good, sound, close reasoning, than
even for the matter itself. But we are glad to have
filled our memory with notions, without troubling
ourselves much with reasoning about them ; if we do
it at all, we may do it in secret. Hence this con-
trariety of opinions, which prove but the state of
errors we live in.

Did I assert too much? If I did, there would be
no chance left to me for making such discoveries as I
have related already, nor would the annunciation of
them be gazed at as something out of all reason. Ar-
chimedes knew and used burning mirrors for destroy-
ing vessels of the enemy, 2000 years ago. The history
of Greece has been taught in our school since cen-
turies, and with it the story of burning mirrors, too,
again and again ; but the schoolmasters thought this

story fabulous, and their scholars helieved it so, he-
cause they saw no such a thing practised before their
eyes, while the first elements of optics taught it to
them with mathematical demonstration.

The discovery of the mathematical law of the lever
made the discoverer exclaim — "Give me but a point
of support, and I can unhinge the world." And I
say with no less exultation, and I wish I could speak
with a voice of thunder, and electrify the dull to sen-
sibility at the greatest and most joyful news that ever
could sound into the human ear : — '* Let me but find
a union of a few inteUigent men who do not judge
before they examine^ and grant me their attention, and 1
can change the world into a most delightful paradise /"

The law of the lever is known to be the fundament
of mechanics, of which the effects may often, to the
untutored, seem no less marvellous than my promised
paradise. The fundament of ray assertion are the im-
mense powers of nature that I have shown to be at
our disposal, and the simple system of their applica-
tion that I am prepared to show. Both are mathe-
matical truths, and both are no subjects of opinion,
dispute, or uncertainty, as soon as they are understood:
none but an ignorant or an idiot would dote against
the former, and will dote against the latter mathema-
tical truth.

What mechanisms, what machines are to be applied,
■will be the question now, granted that there is power
enough.

I shall give here a general outline of ihe system of
machineries and establishments to be pursued.

Wc drudge and toil in agriculture, in architecture,
in uavigatioD, in all workshops, and in manufactories

CO

for mating many useful aqd many useless tilings for
human life, for supplying many various demands of
necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life, of fancy,
and fashions. We little, care about the real benefit
the produces of our industry m'ay afford to the buyer,
provided we get pay for them, and make money by
their sale. There is an endless variety of artificial
productions of every kind, resulting from competition
of the producers. I tave promised contrivances for
superseding all human labour. To imitate minutely
all the infinite variety of produces of human industry
by machineries, would be an endless, ungrateful, and
foolish undertaking, though it might be possible. It
would nearly require to invent for every little work
of man a particular automaton. This i.5 not my pur-
pose. But the most simple contrivances 1 could thin*k
of, and as few as possible, for producing, not the cus-
tomary articles of human industry; but all things that
mav either substitute or surpass the known necessa-
saries, comforts, and luxuries of men, are my objects
in view.

This problem is not so difficult as" might be ima-
gined at first. There was never any s^-stem in the
productions of human labour, but they came into ex-
istence and fashion as chance directed men. Still less
was there ever a thought exhibited to make a general
science or system of providing for all artificial human
wants. My object is to furnish, by an extremely sim-
ple system, all what may be desirable for human life,
without taking for pattern any of the existing things
of industry. By abstracting from all what is in ex-
istence and Aishion, I am enabled to devise means,
without any artificial machinery, for producing every

61

thinc^ tliat man may want for his nourishment, dwell-
ing", garment?, furnitures, and articles of fancy and
amusements.

But we have to relinquish entirely all our customary
, notions of human wants, and substitute them by others
of a superior and more systematic order.

.1 shall begin. with agriculture.
. ■ The first object is here to clear the ground from all
■ spontaneous growth and stones^

1.. A machine of large size is to move along, and
while moving, to tate the trees of all sizes with their
roots out of the ground, to cut them in convenient
pieces, to pile them up, and to take all stones out of
the ground to any required depth.

2. A second machine is to follow, for taking up the
piles of ^vood and atones, and transporting the same to
the places of their destination; this machine may carry
thousands of tons at once.

3. The wood removed to its places for final use, is
then to be formed into planks, boards, beams, rails,
pieces for fuel and for any other purpose, by a simple
contrivance, from when.ce it is to be removed to the
places where it be wanted ; this is done by one ma-
chine, which may also cut stones of any size.

4. The first mentioned machine, with a little alter-
ation, is then to level the ground perfectly, in planin<»'
it, filling the excavations or taking olT the elevations
of ground until all is level. If the hills or valleys are
considerable, the same machine cuts terraces, windinsr
around them up to the top in elegant shapes.

The same machine may make any excavation or
elevation, cut canals, ditches, ponds of any size and

G

()2

shape, raise dams, artificial level roads, walls and
tainparts \\h\\ ditches around fields as enclosures, with
walks on their top, form walks and paths with elevated
borders.

5. The same machine, with some other little alter-
ation, is to give to the ground its final preparation for
receiving the seed; it tills the ground, in tearing the
soil up to any required depth, refining or mouldering
the same, sifting all small roots and stones from it,
and putting the seed into the ground in any way re-
quired.

6. The same machine may take good fertile ground
from one place to some other, for covering, at any re-
quired depth, poor soil svith fertile soil of the best
mixture.

7. The same machine, with a little addition, may
reap any kind of grain or vegetable, thrash the seed
out in the same time, grind it to meal, or press it to oil,
it may also cut or prepare any other vegetable for final
use in the kitchen or bakery.

8. Another small machine may sink wells and
mines to any required depth and in any direction, aud
take the contents of the same up to light, it may be in
earth, rocks, swamps, or water.

Architecture.
Earth may be baked into bricks, or even to vitrified
stone, by heat. Stones may be cemented together, so
as to break to pieces before their cement yields ; a
proof that cement is then harder and more cohesive
than the stones themselves. Sand and stones ground
to dust may be turned into glass or vitrified substance
of the greatest hardness and cohesion, by great hertt.

G3

Hence we may bake large masses of any size and form
into stone and vitrified substance of the greatest dura-
tion, even for thousands of years, out of clayey earth
or of stones ground to dust, by the application of burn-
ing mirrors. This is to be done in the open air with-
out other preparation, than gathering the substance,
grinding and mixing it with water and cement, mould-
ing or casting it into adapted moulds, and bringing
the focus of the burning mirrors of proper size upon
the same.

Wood, cut and ground to dust, and then cemented
by a liquor, may be also moulded into any shape and
dried, so as to become a solid, consistent wooden sub-
stances that may be dyed with various colours, and
polished.

Thus we may mould and bake any form of any size,
entire walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, doors, channels for
canals, ditches, aqueducts, bridges, pavement of walks
and roads, chimneys, hollow cylinders for machineries
and mines and wells, plates for any purpose, vessels
for holding dry and liquid materials, pillars, columns,
balustrades, statues, postaments, and other ornaments,
figures of any description, reliefs, sculptural works,
pipes, furnitures for household, kitchen utensils, pieces
of machineries, and numberless other things, of all
shapes, sizes, colours, fashions, and fancy ; inshort, any
thing of hard material. When once the mould is
made, it may serve for ever for thousands of thousands
of other pieces, no matter how artificially it be shaped,
without ever requiring any further labour of man. The
substance may be polished or glazed, and then serve
for burning mirrors.

64

Founderies of any <lescription iiic to be heated by
buininsT' minors, and retiuire no labour, except the
niakintr of tlie first moubls, and the superintendence
for gathering the metal and taking the finished articles
away.

Flexible Stuff.

There is one yet great desideratum ; this is the
making of flexible or pliable stufls, and finishing all
the articles out of them fur use, such as for garments,
couches, and all other commodities and ornaments,
without labour. If this can be effected without
labour, then the problem of superseding all human
labours is resolved completely.

This can be done, without spinning, weaving,
sewing, tanning, &c., by a simple proceeding. There
are cohesive substances in superabundance in nature,
in the vegetable and animal kingdom, which need but
be extracted ; they are of various ([ualities : some resist
water, some heat, some both, some arc clastic, some
soft, some hard. They all may be hardened or dis-
solved into fluids, just as required. They are made
use of already for various purposes. In dissolving
them into adapted fluids, and mixing the same with
fibres of vegetables of convenient fineness or other
flexible stuffs fitly prepared, they will glutinate them
together. By a proper contiivance sheets of any size
and form may be formed, in a similar manner as it is
done with manufacturing paper. Thi.5 stuff inuy be
made as fine, and as thin or as thick as it may be
desired. Tt may be made of any degree of stiflness
or softness, which is depending from the mixture of

65

stuffs, and from the mannerofpreparation and (inisliing.
It may be calendered and polished for the sake of or-
nament, or for mirrors. It may be made of any colour,
or pattern, without any additional trouble, except
admixture of dying stuff. It may then be used for
any purpose, instead of any woven stuff", of leather,
paper, fur, Sec. It may be cast not only in sheets of
any size or form, butalsointo any shape whatever ; thus
ready-made clothes of any fashion, vessels for holding
dry or liquid materials, of any shape or size, any
other article of commodity may be at once cast or
moulded into the appropriated form or mould.

So there will be no sewing or any kind of finishing
by hands. There is no object of pliable stuff' to be
thought of, which could not be made completely in
this way, so as to supersede all articles of that kind
actually in use.

.Such are all the means for the application of the
immense powers of nature for substituting all human
labours that I have in contemplation. They are
simple, of a very small number in kinds, hardly three
or four diff'erent contrivances. So they arc by no
means of such a nature as to scare the imagination
from attempting the practice of them. They resolve
completely the whole riddle of doing away all human
labour, and make extremely easy and simple what was
ever thought to be utter impossibility. But they do
not only substitute all our present articles of human
industry, but may create a great many things, which
were never seen or thought of yet, to the greatest
benefit of mankind. They are sufficient to create a
paradise surpassing in splendour, delight, and enjoy-

G 2

66

ments all what luiinan fancy ever conceived, a world
altogether new for men, and this in a very short
period.

Let us cast a view upon the things that immediately
may be created by these means.

Any wilderness, even the most hideous and the most
sterile, may be converted into the most fertile and de-
lightful gardens. The most dismal swamps may be
cleared of all their spontaneous growth, filled up, and
levelled, intersected with canals, ditches, and aque-
ducts for draining them entirely. The soil, if re-
quired, may be meliorated, by covering or mixing it
with rich soil taken from distant places. The same
is to be mouldered to fine dust, levelled, sifted from
all roots, weeds, and stones, and sowed and planted
in the most beautiful order and symmetry, with fruit
trees and vegetables of every kind that may stand the
climate. The walks and roads are to be paved with
hard, vitrified large plates, so as to be always clean
from all dirt at any weather or season. They may
be bordered with the most beautiful beds of flowers,
fruitful vegetables, bushes, shrubs, and tiees, all
rising gradually in rows behind one another, arranged
so as to afford almost continually delight to the or-
gans of sight, taste, and smell. Canals and aque-
ducts with vitrified channels, and, if required, covered,
filled with the clearest water out of fountains from
the deep subterraneous recesses of water, which may
spout and be led any where. Some canals may serve
for fish-ponds, and for irrigating the gardens ; others
for draining swampy ground. Some aqueducts may
be used to lead water into all parts of the garden,

Q7

for irrigating the ground whenever it be required ;
this may be done by sprinkling tlie water in copious
showers through moveable tubes with adapted large
mouths. This water may be mixed with liquid ma-
nure, derived from all the decayed vegetables, and
other materials fit for manure, prepared and liquefied
in proper buildings to that effect. Thus the fertility
of the garden will not depend from weather. When
it rains too much, it may be led off from the ground
in proper channels. The canals may be bordered
with beautiful growth in similar manner as the walks.
The channels being of vitrified substance, the water
being perfectly clear, and filtrated or distilled if re-
quired, they may afford the most beautiful sceneries
imaginable, while a variety of fishes is seen clear
down to the bottom playing about; and while these
canals afford in the same time the chance for gliding
smoothly along and between these various sceneries
of art and nature, upon beautiful gondolas, and
while their surface and borders may be covered with
tine land and aquatic birds. The canals may end
or concentrate in large beautiful ponds, where the
bottom is also of vitrified substance. Thus water,
clear as crystal in beds or channels like crystal, sur-
rounded and covered by enchanting sceneries, ferti-
lises and beautifies the gardens, and gives them the
relief of a paradise. The aqueducts may be sup-
ported by the most splendid colonnades. The walks
may be covered with porticos adorned with magni-
ficent columns, statues, and sculptural works, all of
vitrified substance, lasting for ever, while the beau-
ties of nature around heighten the magnificence and

C8

deliciousness. Tlie ponds may also he sunounded
by porticos. Tlicse porticos, the fountains, the green
arbours and bowers may preserve continually fresh-
ness of air and of growth of the vegetables, and
afford delightful shelter against wet weather and
heat.

The crops are gathered and prepared for use without
any labour. There is nothing then but enjoyment
and delight. Pastures may be out of such gardens,
with establishments for milking and butchering, so
that one or two men may do this wort in less than
an hour every day for thousands of consumers.

The hills and mountains may be surrounded by the
most beautiful terraces imaginable, which may wind
in spiral form up to their tops, affording the grandest
and most beautiful prospects, as well from below in
the valleys, as from above down into the same.

This is what concerns agriculture, when I have
supposed the most unfavourable spot to be found
upon eiirth.

The dwellings ought to be also very different from-
what is know n in that kind, if the full benefit of our
means is to be enjoyed. They are to be of a structure
for which we have no names yet. Tliey are to be
neither palaces, nor temples, nor cities, l)ut a com-
bination of all, superior to whatever is known.

It will be easily conceived, that the superintendence
cf machineries and establishments requires no more
men, when operating for, and supplying a whole com-
munity of thousands of families with every thing they
may want, than it would for each single family sepa-
rately. It would be as improper to apply such mighty

69

means for every family in particular, as it would be
to provide every spinster, instead of lier spinning-
wheel, with a large carding and spinning machine
of many thousand spindles. It is, however, not un-
derstood here, to make it a matter of necessity or
compulsion, to live and use the benefits of these
means together in communities. Every one may
have liberty as much as he pleases, to join or live
by himself, and still partake of a large share of the
common benefits to be derived from the application
of these means. Yet it will be soon found and per-
fectly understood by every one, that it is of his
greatest advantage, and but conducive to the greatest
sum of his happiness, if he joins to a community of
such a kind. So it may be first considered what
may be done in, and for a whole community living
together in all the enjoyments these means aftbrd,
and then this life be compared to a separate one.

There is no limit to confine us in the use of our
means, and neither sacrifice nor loss of time requisite
for giving full application to these means. There-
fore, it is neither an idle dream nor useless vanity,
to draw the picture in full of what is easily attain-
able for us ; nor forms it any part of wisdom to re-
fuse 10 us, or to those who are endeared to us, and in
general to our fellow-men, any thing that may in-
crease our happiness and that of other men, while
it is but beneficial in all its consequences for future
times.

The object of forming a community is, to afford to
every member the possible greatest sum of enjoyments,

70

comforts, and pleasures, by the possible least attend-
ance of men.

To obtain these ends, a system of building is to be
contrived for lodging thousands of families together,
without causing inconvenience to any of the inhabit-
ants, and with every thing for their enjoyment with-
in their reach at any time, without trouble, while it
is put into every one's power to alford or to receive
any sociarpleasure of refined society.

I shall merely draw the outlines of a plan here for
attaining these great ends, leaving it to the option of
others to finish the sketch at their pleasure.

Every adult member of either sex is to have an
apartment for exclusive use, consisting of several
rooms, such as for sleeping, bathing, dressing, and
parlour. Children may be lodged under special care
and instruction of certain appointed persons sepa-
rately; but may also lodge with their parents, if de-
sired. Every such private apartment communicates
with the interior by a door to a spacious corridor,
and with the outside of the building by a door to a
gallery around the whole building, from thence to a
flat roof of the building. Through every jirivale
apartment pass pipes for affording at all times cold
and warm water by turning a crank, others for gas-
light, for meliorating the air, for balsamic scents, for
tempering the air in rendering it cooler or warmer,
just as the inmate desires, for moving into the apart-
ment, or removing out of it any thing at the inmate*s
desire. The victuals may, in this manner, be had
separately. The apartment of every adult may ex-

71

tend across the building, being then divided by the
corridor into two parts. Suppose every adult occu-
pies thus twenty-five feet in length on both sides of
the edifice, and every apartment be subdivided into
three or four rooms ; and suppose the width of the
(edifice to be 100 feet, the corridor twenty, the apart-
ments on both sides forty feet wide, so that every
person has two spaces, each about twenty-four feet
long and forty feet wide, for exclusive use. Sup-
pose such an edifice to be 1000 feet long and 100
feet wide, it could then lodge, in this manner, forty
persons. Suppose further, the edifice to be of ten
stories, each twenty feet high, and consequently the
wl\ole edifice 200 feet high, which would have then
400 such private apartments. Four such edifices
joined together in right angles, so as to form a square
of 1000 feet between them, could, in the above de-
scribed manner, lodge 1600 persons, leaving yet at
each of the four corners a square of 100]feet, which,
in the ten stories, contain forty rooms each of 100
feet square : these may be use4 for dormitories of
children. T\^

The inhabitants iifS^ ascend and descend, in the
inside, that is, in the corridors, by commodious stairs;
and at both oulsides, from the galleries that surround
the whole edifice at every story, both inside of the
square and outside ; they may ascend and descend in
boxes, which are moveable up and down, without ex-
ertion or trouble.

The square between these four edifices may be inter-
sected by four walls in one direction and four in the
other, so as to intersect each other in right angles, and

72

fovra twenty-five squares, each of nearly 200 ieei
square. Each of these squares may receive ils lif2:ht
from above throup;h large glasses, or a cupola full of
large windows. Those cupolas may, each by a num-
ber of properly placed large reflectors, reverberate the
day-light tlirough the glasses, and so augment the
light inside, which again is to be received and reverbe-
rated by shining walls or large mirrors, so as to dis-
perse the light in the most proper manner every where
in the inside.

All the walls, of the outside and of the partitions,
need but to consist of colonnades, the intervals of their
columns forming doors and large mirrors. Some of the
twenty-five squares may, in the same manner, be sub-
divided into smaller ones. These larger and smaller
squares are to form halls for various purposes, such as
fordining, reading, conversation, instruction, of children
and of adults ; for amusements ; for general meetings,
such as for public discourses, concerts, theatrical scenes,
balls, &c. ; one for the kitchen department, and for
stores of prepared and unprepared victuals ; the
former stores are to be subdivided into chambers and
moveable boxes. Every such box is to contain one
portion of one kind of victuals for one meal of the
community. It maybe moved, by a slight motion of
the hand, into the kitchen, where it empties itself into
the vessel ready for reception and final preparation in
cooking or baking. One or two persons are suffi-
cient to direct the kitchen business. They have
nothing else to do than to superintend the cookery, and
to watch the time of the victuals being done, and
then to remove them with the table and vessels into

73

the (lining hall, or to the respective private apartments,
by a slight motion of the hand at some crank. From
thence are thereafter the remaining victuals to be
removed into the store of prepared victuals.

The cleaning of the vessels and all washing of uten-
sils, floors &c., is to be done by streaming water ; the
washing of other stuff's by steam. All this requires
no work, but is done by slightly moving some crank.
Any extraordinary desire of any person may be satis-
fied by going to the place where the thing is to be had ;
and any thing that requires a particular preparation in
cooking or baking may be done by the person who
desires it.

Thus there is no occasion for any work, except the
superintendence of the kitchen department and some
other machinery, which requires from one to three
persons in all for the whole community. If done by
turns, every adult member would hardly have one turn
for one day's superintendence in the whole year. But
it would probably be done voluntarily by the greatest
part, without waiting for their turn ; it being but an
amusement, aud no tedious occupation or labour.

The policy would be a matter of special arrange-
ment of the community.

These outlines of the purposes of the edifice, and
the materials, means, and powers that are at our dis-
posal, give the ideas of the architecture to be adopted.
I repeat it, it is not for a vain show and mere idle
pomp, that I am drawing a fanciful picture ; but a
perfect harmony of means and wants must dictate all
the contrivances to be made ; and it is this intended

H

74

harmony that induces me to give a fall sketch of the
objects wiihin our reach.

The system of the building is to be adapted to give
the most convenient lodgings, with the greatest com-
forts and enjoyments by the least trouble, to the
greatest sum of individuals in the smallest space
These purposes seem to be attainable in the greatest
perfection possible by the system as mentioned. A
space of about 1200 feet square, or nearly one six-
teenth part of a square mile, may contain, inclusive,
children, 3,000 to 4,000 individuals, with the following
conveniences: —

Each adult member has, out of his apartment, a free
view into the envirions around the habitation, and an
immediate communication with the halls in the inside
of the square. He may walk, inside or outside of the
square, upon the galleries that surround every story.
He may Uscend to any story above his, or to the flat
roof of the whole square, or descend to any gallery
below bis story, or to the ground, in a box, without
trouble, easy and quick, both inside and outside of the
square. He may thus move without exertion, in a few
seconds, to any part of the square, inside and outside,
every individual having a box inside and another one
outside for his own use, fixed in a proper manner at
the galleries by his apartment. He may procure to
himself all common articles of his daily wants, by a
short turn of some crank, without leaving his apart-
ment. He may at any time bathe himself in cold or
warm water, or in steam, or in some artificially pre-
pared li(j[uor for invigorating health. He may at any

75

time give to the air in liis apartment that temparatnre
that suits his feeling best. He may cause at any time
an agreeable scent of various kinds. He may at any
time meliorate his breathing air, this main vehicle of
vital power. The science of chemistry, in our days,
teaches this to be done in a high degree. Man is
depending, physically and morally, from the things
that surround him, and chiefly from the temperature
and the qualities of the air he breathes and absorbs
through his pores. Impure and and inferior air is
more hurtful to health and temper than bad water ;
the difference is only, that the bad qualities and impu-
rities of water are partly seen and tasted, while those
of the air are invisible. Nobody would like to drink
out of a stinking pool ; still the invisible air, which is
continually inhaled and immediately transformed into
component parts of our own body and life, is of far
greater importance for life ; so much, at least, that the
same human individual, with the same food and habits,
may in one kind of air lire with a decaying health,
pale and sallow face, general debility, digestion and
all other vital functions enfeebled, susceptible of vari-
ous diseases, till finally premature death or accelerated
decrepitude concludes his existence : while in another
kind of air he may enjoy a vigorous health, a cheerful
temper, possess a blooming countenance, and the best
energies of all vital functions, and thus reach an age
far beyond the common period of human life ; yet the
difference of air would be neither seen nor smelt.
'I'lierefore, by a proper application of the physical
knowledges of our days, man may be kept in a perpe-
tual serenity of mind, and, if there is no incurable

disease or defect in his organism, in constant vigour of
Lcnlll), and lluis his life he prolonged heyond any
inown period of human life of our present time.

The edillce is to he provided with large ice-cellars,
suflicient to furnish at all limes the inmates with cool
streams of air or water through every private apart-
ment, as well as through the halls. There is also a
heating apparatus for procuring warm air or water
"wherever it he desired.

All this is to be effected, not by a complicated ma-
chinery, hut in the most simple way.

The character of architecture is to be quite different
from what it ever has been hitherto. There are vehi-
cles to be used for moving several thousand tons at
once, and putting them into their destined place.
Hence large solid masses are to be baked or cast in
one piece, ready shaped in any form that may be
desired. The building may therefore consist in columns
200 feet high and upwards, of proportionate thickness,
and of one entire piece of vitrified substance. These
columns may form colonnades both for surrounding the
whole square and dividing and subdividing it into all
the required larger andsmallersquares, for the private
jipartments, the halls and their subdivisions. The floors
and ceilings of each such square may be of one entire
piece of the same or similar vitrified substance. The
intervals of the columns along them are to form the
doors, windows, mirrors, pictures, 6ce., for the parti-
lions and outside walls. All these huge pieces are to
"bemouldedsoas tojoin and hook into each other firmly,
by proper joints or folds, and not to yield in any with-
out breaking.

77

Thus a system of buildings, indestructible for many
thousands of years, consisting of but entire columns
and plates of hard vitrified substance, is to be erected
in a most simple way, without expense or labour, with
but little time, after the first simple tools are made.
And what difference between this system of building
and the most magnificient palaces and temples that
ever were known !

The substance may be died with various beautiful
colours. So the colonnades with the reliefs, bas-reliefs^
pictures and sculptures, copied in a mechanical way,
and ornaments of every kind, on and between the co-
lumns, may all radiate with crystal-like brilliancy of
the most beautiful and indestructible colours — all this
reflected and multiplied by mirrors and reflectors of
various kinds.

All parts of the edifice may be furnished with beau-
tiful carpets and couches along the walls, which in the
halls may rise amphitheatrically behind one another,
moveable seats and tables, and every thing that may
afford convenience or please the fancy.

The twenty-five halls in the inside of the square,
each 200 feet square and high ; the forty corridors,
each 1,100 feet long and twenty feet wide ; the eighty
galleries, each from 1,000 to 1,250 feet long; about
7,000 private rooms ; the whole surrounded and inter-
sected by the grandest and most splendid colonnades
imaginable ; floors, ceilings, columns with their vari-
ous beautiful and fanciful intervals, all shining, and
reflecting to infinity all objects and persons, with
splendid lustre of all beautiful colours and fanciful
shapes and pictures ; every where the most elegant

H 2

78

couches, seat?, tables, ^c ; all galleries, outside and
Avithin tlie balls, provided with many tbousand commo-
dious and most elegant vehicles, in wliich persons may
move up and down, like birds, in perfect security, and
"without exertion; the elegant galleries with beautiful
balustrades and various ornaments; the flat roof of the
Avhole square, 1:250 feet square, with its twenty-five
cupolas, each upwards of 100 feet in diameter, with*
mazes of pleasant galleries, turrets, places for various
purposes, vaulted alleys, pavilions, and many various
ornaments and commodities : at night the roof, and
the inside and outside of the whole square are illumi-
nated by gas-light, which, in the mazes of many co-
loured crystal, like colonades and vaultings and re-
ilectors, is reverberated with a brilliancy that gives to
the whole a lustre of precious stones as far as the eye
can see — such are the future abodes of men ! —

The environs of this residence are no less beautiful.
The building is to be erected on an elevated spot, ar-
tificially made, if not formed by nature already, with a
commanding view,npon an extensive landscape, of the
most fanciful and varied beauties of nature and art,
Avilh all the luxuriancy and variety of growth that
such a superior culture of soil and a fine climate afford.
— And why pass a dreary winter every year, while
there is yet room enough on the globe where nature is
iljlessed with a perpetual summer, and with a far
p'cater variety and luxuriancy of vegetation ? — More
than one half of the surface of the globe has no win-
ter. Men will have it in their power to remove and
prevent all bad influences of climate, and to enjoy
perpetually only that temperature which suits their

constitution and feelings l»cs(. . 'J'licro willhc afTovdcd
the nio;-t enrapturing views to be faueicd, out oT the
private apartments, from the galleries, from the roof,
from its turrets and cupolas — gardens as far as the eye
can sec, full of-fruils and llowers arranged in the
most beautihil order, with walks, colonades, aqueducts,
canals, ponds, plains, amphitheatres, terraces, foun-
tains, sculptural works, pavilions, gondolas, places
for public amusements, &c,. &c., delight the eyes and
fancy, the taste and smell.

The night affords no less delight tx) fancy and feel-
ings. All infinite variety of grand, beautiful, and
fanciful objects and sceneries, radiating with crys-
taline brilliancy of all colours every where inside and
outside of the square, by the illumination of gas-
light ; the human figures themselves, arrayed in the
most beautiful pomp that fancy may suggest and the
eye may delight, shining, even with brilliancy of stuff
and diamond, like stones of various colours, elegantly
shaped and arranged around the body ; all reflected
thousandfold in huge mirrors and reflectors of various
forms ; theatrical scenes of a grandeur and magnifi-
cence and enrapturing illusions unknown yet, in which
any person may be either a spectator or actor : the
speech and the songs reverberating with increased sound
rendered more sonorous andharmonious than by nature,
by vaultings that arc moveable into any shape at any
time ; the sweetest and most impressive harmony of
music, produced by song and instruments partly not
known yet, may thrill through the nerves, and vary
with other amusements and delights.

Such is the life reserved to true intelligence, but

80

withheld from ignorance, prejudice, and stupid adhe-
rence to custom.

And what is all the material for so enchanting and
unheard of abodes, sceneries, ornaments, dress, com-
forts, luxuries, delights? Nothing but the most com*
mon, the most neglected stuff in nature, earth, sand,
clay, stones, the substances of vegetables that hitherto
had no value and no use but for dung. And what is
the expense for producing such great things? None,
except for the first machineries, of very simple con-
struction, and for the first moulds of all things to be
artificially made; for the machineries themselves, as
well as the moulds for casting the materials for use,
are to be made by the same machineries, and may
then be multiplied to any number required, without
any labour or expense.

Such is the domestic life to be enjoyed by every
human individual that will partake of it. How different
from that of even the mightiest monarch, or the richest
man of our times ? — No fear of beingrobbed or cheated^
no cares of managing the household, none even for
the education of children ; for this will be provided
for, by a ivise people, in a general way, for generating
and cultivating good feelings and instructing the mind
of all what is to be known ; no anxiety for preserving
or increasing property, no disgusting objects and oc-
cupations vexes there the mind ; no low vices and
crimes, resulting from want, or fear of want, and po-
verty, surround man ; there is but one desire predomi-
nant in all ; — this is, to live as happy as they can, and
in order to live so, to please and to be pleased. Love
and affection may there be fostered and enjoyed with-

81

out any of the obstriiclions that oppose, diminish, and
destroy them in the present eommon state of men.
The minds and feelings will be enlivened by nobler
springs, in proportion of their physical and mental
improvement, which therefore may cause a character
as superior to the present civilized men as this is to
that of savage cannibals ; for there will be no object,
and no cause, any more for low cunning and deceit,
for gaining advantage over his fellow-creature in for~
tune and rank ; the dealings between man and man
within the community consist no more in selling as
dear as possible, and buying as cheap as possible ; there
is no traffic, because every thing is as cheap as water,
and as free as air ; there is a very different kind of
dealings to step into the room of our present market
business : this is to eirjoy life as well as possible by
mutual sociality, by social arrangements, by reciprocal
communictions, by public pleasures and instruction.
Man sees there himself, not waited upon and sur-
rounded by low, miserable, degraded beings, which he
has to watch, to pity, or despise. There he sees him-
self and his endeared friends, and his fellow-men in
general, raised to the highest station that human life
be capable of.

Is this, perhaps, to be called but a fancy ? What
should hinder man from enjoying his life in such a
superior state of general happiness, when a plain way
is shown to him for attaining it? There is a stronger
impulse in human nature for enjoying happiness, far
stronger than all futile sophistry could pretend against
it. Man is made for society, not for solitude, like beasts
of prey. He is made for joy, not for mourning his life

82

away. He is a being capable of great sufieiings and of
great enjoyments. The fears of the ones and the
hopes of the others actuate him. It is but miscon-
ception of our destination, barbarism, ignorance, super-
stition, and insanity itself, that may prefer suffering
to enjoyment, or a less sum of happiness to a greater
one. The greatest sum of happiness is only to be
found in social and friendly life : this will and must be
courted, when the causes of enmity between man and
man have ceased. These causes of enmity are unavoid-
able in our present state of society and general poverty.
But they all will and must subside in a state of super-
abundance and liberation from all disagreeable labour
and occupation, and opposite interest.

There is no variety of opinions to be dreaded. Let
there be as many and different opinions as you please,
there will be no compulsion ; every one may live as he
pleases; but there will be no diflference in the desire
of living happy, and therefore peaceably. This desire
will be sufficient to let each other in peace, and to wish
and seek friends with whom to communicate and par-
take of the ideas and enjoyments.

Will it, perhaps, be said, man will grow weary of his
time by living but in enjoyments and idleness.^ It is
true, man will be no more a slave to work and drudgery
and insipid occupations; he will be no longer under
the sad necessity to struggle through life for life; his
anind will no longer be absorbed by mechanical pursuits
for his livelihood, for earning money ; he will no
longer, like a beast of burden, live but for to work>
and work but for to live. What, is man such a poor,
miserable creature by nature, that he cannot live with-

83

out living like a heast of burden, like a slave? Is
there no better destination of the human being to be
looked for? Is he, perhaps, of so corrupted and so
hideous a nature , that he must he kept in fetters of
slavery like a dangerous, mad animal ? A very fine
doctrine, indeed, for all tyrants to keep their fellow-men
in subjection and stupidity, in order to make use of it
for themselves! No wonder if such doctrines were
preached with great sanctimoniousness to the multi-
tude, in countries of unlimited despotism ; and no
wonder if such doctrines got so deeply inveterated into
the minds, by length of time and continual repetition,
that they were transplanted even to happier and freer
countries.

Man will grow weary of any thing, where he sees
nothing but sameness and tediousness. But does it
follow thence, that he will grow less weary of his time
when he is made less happy ? Will he grow less weary
of time, when his resources of pleasures and enjoy-
ments are made less, and his drudgery, cares, and vex-
ations are made more? A curious piece of logic, to
affirm such monstrous absurdity ! Yet it may be used
by some who pretend to large share of wisdom.

Let us cast a glance to the resources that men will
immediately possess in this new , happy condition for
passing and enjoying their life,

Man may spend the greatest part of his life in com-
pany of the objects of his love and aflection, increasing
thereby his own happiness and that of his endearments
in conversing with them, and imparting to and receiv-
ing from them pleasure and instruction, in passing
with them through an endless variety of pleasures and

84

gratifications of senses, of feelings, of fancy, of intellect.
There will be a continual feast, parties of pleasures,
novelties, delights, and instructive occupations. INIan
may rove about in the gardens, in pleasant walks of
crystal, and between flowers and vegetables of infinite
variety and appearance ; he may amuse bimself in
ampbitheatrical and level places, filled and bordered
with every thing that art and nature can produce for
the delight of man ; he may glide in elegant gondolas
upon water clear as crystal, beautified and enlivened
with fishes and swarms of land and aquatic birds, bor-
dered with the most beautiful sceneries, reflected again
in the water. Is he fond of gardening ? — He may fol-
low his inclination in the most agreeable manner; he
may arrange and cultivate flowers, shrubs, trees, as
fancy and notion, or curiosity for experiments dictates
him; there will never be an end in objects and new
experiments. Is he fond of mechanical occupation ? —
He may exercise his dispositions and talents to an ex-
tent beyond the present conceptions : he may form
models and moulds, and see the objects multiplied for
use and show to any extent, without any further trouble.
Is he gifted with talents for drawing, painting, sculp-
tures, &c. ? — He needs but to make one model of every
figure, and it may then be nmltiplied to any desired
number, by moulds, etching and printing machines.
Is he fond of music? — Where could he find more op-
portunity than in such a life ? He may at once delight
and be delighted, by performances of his own and in
company with other musicians: instruments and means
are at his disposal unknown yet ; and his compositions
may be repeated and multiplied by mechanical plays

So

ali(\ machines. The cominunities will have means to
command and procure whatever is to be found in the
whole world for enjoyment,amusement, and instruction.
The gardens, and the vast and numerous halls, are
•adapted to I'eceive the objects. Is somebody inclined to
the study and amusement of botany .''—lie may see,
in a botanical garden, the plants in their natural state,
and read whatever is known of the qualities and uses
and organism of any one, in a particular book for every
one, kept in a box at the side of the plant. Has one a
notion to instruct and amuse himself of natural history
and curiosities ? — He may go into the museum in one
of the hulls, where he may see displayed all what na-
im^e exhibits to man on the whole globe; he may read
there the ample description and history of every indi-
vidual or object in a particular book being at the side
of it. Has any body a taste for mineralogy ? — He may
gratify it to his satisfaction in properly arranged and
described collections of minerals. He may read and
study the ancient world in petrifactions of organic be-
ings that are extinguished, arranged in their natural
•connexions with each other and with those of the pre-
sent world. Does he seek information in the history of
.nations ? — He may see it, as much as there is known
of it, displayed and explained on proper maps, with
streams, branches, and ramifications of different colours,
representing the times, and nations and their branches,
from the remotest antiquity down to our time, by a cer-
tain system of signs; he may see there, at one glance,
the rise, increase, conquests, dominions, influences of
some, and the downfall, subversions, and subjections of
others ; the character, religion, system of state, man-

I

86

ners and customs, occupations, resources, geographical
situations, productions, climate, manner of living, &c,,
of every people known in ancient and modern history;
there he may trace the origin of the present nations,
and their various relations to each other. Will he
amuse and instruct himself in the details of history ? —
He may read books on every nation. Will he take
information in geography? — He may go into the hall,
where not only maps and books are, but also large
globes and maps in reliefs, representing mountains and
heights of land in their natural proportion, also the ex-
tent of notable large places of any description. Galle-
ries of pictures and prospects may be exhibited every
where in the square. In particular halls may land-
scapes and prospects of foreign countries be represented
in their natural size and appearance, by large camera
obscura and clara, so that he may see all the most no-
table curiosities, cities, and prospects in the world, with-
out travelling thither. Has he a notion for reading ?
— He may go to the reading-hall, where many thou-
sand selected books on all subjects of reason and fancy
are stored. Has he a mind to make himself acquainted
with physics, chemistry, anatomy, mathematics, astro-
nomy ? — He may go into the auditories and labora-
tories, and see the experiments and observations made
and explained. Will he hear and partake of philoso-
phical and other speculative disquisitions and dis-
courses ? — Ho may gratify his desire everyday, because
there will never be a want of objects, nor of curiosity^
Will he sport in the news of the day?— He may
amply satisfy his curiosity by reading the news of every
day from all parts of the world, and also telegraphical

87

news. A tachigraphy, with peculiarly adapted charac-
ters, and lithography may be united, and printing esta-
blishments, by which the composing of words may be
effected as quick as one speaks, and the copies multi-
plied without labour.

Whatan endless variety of highly instructive, useful,
and amusing objects are there presented for one's gra-
tification ! — The past and present world, the history of
nature, not as imagined by the superstitious and igno-
rant, but such as nature shows herself to the think-
ing observer ; the mysterious and instructive opera-
tions of nature ; the history of man, from antiquity
down to us; the documental remnants of his former sci-
ences, arts, customs, ideas, manners of living, &c. ; the
endless variety of organic beings, their organisms, na-
ture, and use for men ; the unorganic substances in na-
ture, and their various uses ; the phenomena in atmo-
sphere and water ; the visible universe of millions of
worlds at night, beheld through mighty telescopes and
explained; the worlds of beings presented to the eyes
by microscopes ; optical instructive amusements of
various kinds, views of landscapes and prospects with-
out end; drawing, painting, sculpture, modelling, gar-
dening, music, reading, theatrical sceneries of endless
kinds, for amusing and cultivating the mind and the
finer feelings; discourses, lectures, conversations, news
of the day ; parlies of pleasures of various kinds, social
plays and amusements of mind and body.

Can it be supposed with any shadow of reason, that
man, in such circumstances, ever may grow weary of
his time ? There is no laborious study or occupation ;
it is but by amusement, by gratifying the curiosity

natural to man and child, thai man will thus get
acquainted and familiar uith all knowledg^c of thing^s,
that the whole world may present to the human obser-
vation ; he has but to look at the objects, and receive
the instruction about them by written or oral commu-
nications ; he may see and handle them himself,
whenever he has a desire to do so. The objects of
human knowledges, nature herself, are displayed be-
fore him ; they require no labour to sec and observe
them ; he may familiarize himself in the same manneir
as he does now with the products of his field and work-
shop, or the articles in a market. They are so vast
and numberless, so instructive, so important to use,
reason, fancy, and feelings of man, that they alford a
never-ending variety and novelty. And knowledge
begets knowledge, ideas beget new ideas; the dor-
mant faculties of men will be roused, a spirit of in-
quiry kindled. Every day will bring forth new know-
ledges to every individual ; the desire of knowing
more, of communicating to others what has struck and
amused the mind, is natural ; conversation will turn
upon the subjects that are the most interesting to the
mind, and will generate mutually new ideas and know-
ledges. What an immense store and variety of sub-
jects of the highest importance will then animate the
conversation ! There will be hardly any time left for
trivial phrases, and discourses, and occupations. The
child will learn thus more, and in a more impressive
manner, than what the most learned men at present
have acquired with the most laborious study ; it will
learn the knowledges of things in the same nianner
us it learns its mother tongue, that is, without being

89

conscious of learning, without disagreeable exertion,
without compulsion. It is hut the light of true know-
ledges, of knowledges of real things, the free and un-
fettered exercise of the mental faculties, that can
gradually dispel the gloom of superstition, errors and
ignorance, the bane of human life, the disgrace of any
people, and the greatest curse of the whole mankind
yet.

Man will then soon learn, that he knew hitherto not
one thousandth part of what he might and ought to
know for his own benefit, and that he knew hitherto
not one millionth part of what he was persuaded to
know. Nature is veiled in myvSteries to our immediate
perceptions. Our own life, the whole nature around us,
continually active and pov;erful, are mysteries to us.
A great deal is unveiled by assiduous observations and
experiments of studious men in the latter times. An
infinite greater deal is yet to be unveiled and applied
to our great benefit, to the melioration of human life.
It is hardly one century ago, that men would have
been roasted alive, without pity, as sorcerers, not
merely by the rabble, but by the sentence of the judges
and laws of the then most civilized countries, ours not
excepted, had they shown physical experiments that
are known since. These, our forefathers, committed
such horrid barbarities with all the gravity and honesty
that any of us may be capable of, and would have
looked upon any man as a horrid monster of infidelity,
who had dared to deny the possibility of such a crime.
Such are the necessary consequences of ignorance,
prejudice, and stupid adherence to custom. Is, per-
haps, our present generation free of irrationality and

i2

90

error? — Have \vc, pcrliap?, readied now the summit
of liiiman wisdom, and need no more to look out for
any menial or physical improvement? — This is ex-
actly the way of thinkinu^ that ever barred the road to
intelligence. Let us see whether we have some reason
to suppose that we are just arrived at the period where
every thing is so good and perfect, that there is no
occasion to trouble ourselves any more about making
improvements, that we have a right to treat all those
as fools who attempt any thing towards the improve-
ment of the human condition, and that we disgrace
ourselves in paying any attention to new ideas. — A iine
apology for mental sloth and stupidity !

Not one ten thousandth part of men in the most ci-
vilized countries are actually engaged in any study or
investigation of nature. — Still, is there any other source
of true and useful knowledges!* — Only a few profes-
sional men of learning occupy themselves with teaching
natural philosophy, chemistry, and the other branches
of the sciences of nature, to a very limited extent, for
very limited purposes, with very limited means. The
rest of men have to pass their lives in drudgery and
trivial occupations, and in ignorance, in many erro-
neous notions of nature, for want of means, time, and
chance for information.

What would be the increase of knowledges, if a
large community, with unlimited means, might follow
the natural impulse of curiosity in investigating na-
ture ? — Is it not most probable, that they would dis-
cover in one year more than hitherto in centuries? —
Man is a product of nature. His life is depending
from the air he breathes, from the nourishments he

91

tales, from various causes that surround him, visibly
and invisibly. His life is liable to many evils, and to
a very uncertain duration. He may remove or avoid
the causes of many, if not of all evils ; he may in-
vigorate and prolong his life. The more he learns to
know the causes of evils, and the means of health and
happiness, the more it will be in his power to increase
his happiness, to preserve his health, and to prolong
his life. AVho knows to what happy results a general
spirit of investigation, with unboimded means, may
lead ? — The ancients, among whom sciences flourished
the most, knew probably more of nature already, thau
we know now of it. In this new state of men, every
thing that may be, found contributive to health and
happiness, may be applied immediately after its being
known. The more man understands to read in the
infinite book of nature, the only fountain of true
knowledges, the more eagerly he will read in it, and
the more he will learn of it.

Can it be apprehended yet, that man, in this new,
infinitely happier state of life, will grow weary of his
time for want of occupation?

What immense difterence between such a life, and
that which has hitherto been the lot of man ? — A life
of information, of ten thousand times a larger sphere of
activity, and of continual enjoyments, and satisfac-
tions in endless variety, and of but friendly social inter-
..course ;— and a life of drudger}^, of trivial occupations,
of tediousness, vexation, anxiety, want, and fear of
want, and of general poverty in resources for pleasures
and enjoyments, of general ignorance in the most im-
portant knowledges of things, of opposite interests in

92

society, of enmities, mutual distviist, mutual injus-
tices, and crimes and barbarities !

But some are taugbt to say, a life of enjoyments,
pleasures, and luxury, a life of happiness and wealth,
will enervate and corrupt men. — Poor men ! They can-
not think, perhaps, of enjoyments and luxury, with-
out recollecting what they know or heard of the poor
enjoyments and miseries of grog-shops, gambling-
houses and bordels, where men, tired of their tedious
life, and impatient of their misfortune, seek to drown
their minds in oblivion for a short time, by making
themselves crazy and miserable. Or they will allege
examples of nations in ancient history, which kept
themselves in a state of independence while they were
poor and had to live in ignorance, by hard labour and
robbery, like the ancient Romans and other nations,
but lost their independence in the course of political
events, or by corruption, caused by relative want and
avidity of influential individuals after more wealth,
information, and seductive means, were introduced. —
Poor logic, that does not look at the real causes and
consequences! — As well might we prefer the state of
our savage Indians to our own. We are rising into a
most powerful people, while we do not despise the
comforts of life, when these unfortunate savages, by-
all their hard life, dwindle away to nothing.

I have drawn but the sketch of domestic life within
our immediate reach. But man is not to be confined
to domestic life; he may roam over the whole world,
not in hardships, perils, and deprivations, but, with
his family and friends, in all security, refinements of
social life, comforts and luxury, as well as he may

93

enjoy at home. Large, commodious vehicles for car-
rying many thousand tons, running over peculiarly
adapted level roads, at the rate of forty miles per hour,
or 1000 miles per day, may transport men and things,
small houses, and whatever may serve for his comfort
and ease, by land. Floating islands, constructed of
logs, or of wooden stuffs, prepared in a similar manner
as it is to he done with stone, and of live trees, which
may he reared so as to interweave each other and
strengthen the whole, may he covered with gardens
and palaces, propelled hy powerful engines, and run
at equal rate through seas and oceans. Thus, man
may move with the celerity of birds' flight, in terres-
trial paradises, from one climate to another, and see
the world in all its variety, exchanging with distant
peoples the surplus of productions. The journey from
one pole to another may then be performed in a fort-
night ; the visit to a transmarine country in one week
or two ; a journey around the world in one or two
months, by land and water. What new objects of in-
quiry will then be afforded, and in what rapid succes-
sion will the knowledges of men increase ?-^But not
only the surface of the globe may be soon explored,
but also (he interior of the earth. Man will have the
means to search the bowels of the earth, and make the
best use of it for his life. New sciences, new concep-
tions of the earth, of nature in general, and of all her
productions, will arise. Man may search into the
earth, without labour or danger, many miles deep,
and discover new things not known, and never ima-
gine yet.

3y searching through the whole Nature after her

94

hidden operations, under ground, over tlie whole sur-
face of the globe, in her general and individual or-
ganizations, by magnifying glasses, by experiments
and observations of physics, chemistry, and of all
objects of curiosity, on extensive plans, with un-
bounded means, and thousands and myriads of ob-
servers, men will discover gradually keys for disclosing
one secret of nature after another, and apply the dis-
coveries to his benefit. Who may say where such
endeavours may end, which all, through mighty ex-
citements and instruction, must be highly pleasant.

What objects for enterprising men will here be pre-
sented ? — There are boundless fields for human acti-
vity of superior order ; there are excitements and
objects of the utmost importance for exercising the
faculties of reason and fancy ; there the human being
may and will rise higher and higher above brutes, and
make himself more and more lord of nature.

How trifling, how insignificant, how tedious must
all our present occupations and pursuits appear, when
we compare them to this new sphere of actions ! —

There is no fear of wars, robbery and murder, any
more. The powers and means of such a magnitude
are here contemplated but for creating a paradisaical
life; but they might also be used as the most terrible
and irresistible weapons of protection. Wisdom and
humanity will, however, never glory in the needless
destruction and misery of fellow-men. Men of such
exalted station of culture and happiness, as the new
means afford, may to foreign people of a lower station
of intelligence, tender with one hand large and sub-
stantial benefits, and improve gradually their mental

95

stale, until they become worthy associates ; while,
with the other hand, they may keep them in awe by the
exhibilion of destructive power; and thus effect, like
gods, respect, awe, and gratitude, among all peoples
with whom they have intercourse.

They may safely extend the benefits of these new
means for human happiness upon all men on earih,
without fearing any derogation or danger to them-
selves; for the world is yet large enough to afford su-
perabundance of all necessaries and comforts of human
life, for many ages to come, for the whole human kind,
even by the most rapid increase of population. The
seas and ocean, and all sterile spots on the globe, may
be rendered fruitful. The surface of the globe is about
200 millions of square miles, of which the half has no
winter, that is, the belt of the globe, between about
thirty degrees of north and south latitude, and may
yield every where several crops in a year. So there
are about 100 millions of square miles of the most
delightful climate, and may produce the greatest
luxuriancy and variety of vegetables. It is known
that there, in some parts, one or two square rods may
produce sufficient food for one man. But suppose, in
the possible highest slate of culture, it should require
ten square rods for every human individual, an esti-
mation by no means out of reason, when we consider
our new means for superior culture, and the richest
soil artificially made, that never is deficient of plenty
of water, the unparalleled great quantity of food that
may be raised thereby, and that more than one of the
most luxuriant crops is afforded every year, and the
comparatively small wants of a man for his food, if

96

properly managed : at this rate, one acl-e would
nourish sixteen liuman individuals, and one square
mile about 10,000. The most splendid and spacious
habitations would hardly occupy one-sixteenth part of
the area. Thus 100 millions of square miles might
nourish 1 ,000,000,000,000 of human individuals, that
is, about 1000 times as many as there are actually
living on earth ; and all might enjoy all the happiness
that human nature be capable of, and this world may
afford for man. I am but speaking of the means
known to me ; but who might assert that they may not
be still farther extended ? — Chemistry, and other
knowledges of nature, may teach other ways for mul-
tiplying and accelerating the productions of nature for
the nourishment of man.

Therefore, there is no cause for envy, fear, and en-
mity, between man and man, or between nation and
nation, except ignorance and error.

All men may plentifully partake of the benefits no/-
ture affords to human enjoyment, by a wise applica-
tion of her powers and means. It would be as ridi-
culous then, to dispute and quarrel about the means
for our life, than it would be now about water for to
drink along mighty rivers, or about the permission of
breathing air in the atmosphere, or about sticks in our
extensive woods. Whatever we may buy now by-
money, has its value derived from labour bestowed
\ipon it, or from its scarcity. Where there is no la-
bour required, an<l no want to be feared, there is no
occasion for buying or disputing possession, just as it
is with water, or air, or other articles of no value,
though necessary to life^

97

Tins happy period is to he loolvcd foi- at iio grestt
distance ; it may he eftected \\ithin ten years. How-
ever, the first ohject we have in immediate view is to
gain wealth, or its representative, money, in order to
procure wliat we want for our purposes.

We are used to estimate every thing by the price of
money it may cost or bring ; every gain or loss is mea-
sured by the difference between the price of purchase
and sale. It is therefore natural that it will be ques-
tioned, what pecuniary profit is to be obtained by these
means ? — ^Though the answer to this question is but
of inferior merit, as it tends not immediately to the
improvement of the human condition, but merely to
transient, limited advantages of individuals, — yet it
will probably serve to elucidate, to the most common
conceptions, the benefits of these means in the most
striking manner.

There is no exact estimation of the pecuniary profit
to be made, because this depends from localities, cir-
cumstances, price of labour and materials, from con-
junctures of commerce, from ihe extent of application,
and various other particulars. But a general estimation
at the highest or lowest calculation, according to general
experience of prices of the concerning articles, may be
formed. I shall make here the lowest estimation of
gain, without however being positive, leaving it to
others to correct or complete the calculation, after they
are acquainted with the particulars of the enterprise.

The beginning of the execution of the proposals is
to be made under all the most favourable circumstances
that can be selected, as well with respect to locality as
to other pecuniary matters. It will also no special

K

98

proof requircj that by too small a principal, and by too
narrow a limit in the oxecution of such a plan,, the
gain would be of little consideration.

There are many enterprises of roads, canals, manu-
factories, &c., executed in our country, at expenses of
millions of dollars, which were brought up by volun-
tary associations, with shares of fifty dollars, and le^s,
so that even the poor could participate in the. enterprise
without endanp;ering his small fortune. It may, there-
fore, be considered as a moderate sum, brought toge-
ther in a similar way, when rated at 200,000 to 300,000
dollars for the beginning, which may be sufficient to
create the first establishment for a whole community
of 3,000 or 4,000 individuals in the described manner.
Suppose one year for the preparations. Suppose in ilie
second year one man effects by the machinery as much
as 1,000 men would do with working in the usual
manner, — a very low estimation, considering what has
been stated of the power and means. Suppose the
work of a man for the whole year, to be worth 200
dollars, in an average. Tben one man, with this
machinery, would gain the value of 1,000 times 200, or
200,000 dollars in the second year. But besides this
gain, the machinery may be npjdied to convert all the
raw materials requisite to establishments and ma-
chineries of the new kind, into the finished pieces for
use, so that they require but transporting and putting
them together into machineries, &rc.

The machineries arc sim])lc, and are thus to propa-
gate or multiply themselves without labour: — nine
machineries would be a comparatively small object
for being made by one established machinery in one

99

year.. Thus there may be in the third year ten lua-
chiilerics or establishments, in the fourth 100, and in
the fifth, 1,000 machineries or establishments. The
revenues would then he, in the tliird year, ten times
200,000, or 2,000,000 dollars; in the lourth, ten times
as much again, or twenty millions of dollars, and so in
the "fifth, 200 millions of dollars. Allo^inp^ the re-
venues of the first four years for purchasing the
required raw materials for the new establishments, there
would still remain a gain of about 200 millions of
dollars ; that is, each dollar for the beginning would
have been increased to 1,000 dollars in five years. The
productions of these establishments would all find
every wher6 a sure market, because they would be but
articles of necessaries, and real comforts of life, pro-
duce of the ground or materials for use, surpassing
what has been in use hitherto ; they would command
the price, and their transport would require but a small
portion of their value, by applying more perfect means
than usual.

A share of twenty or fifty dollars for the beginning,
would thus increase to 20,000 or 50,000 dollars.

But how would it be thereafter, in another period of
five years, beginning with a principal of 200 millions
of dollars ? — The extent of establishments would, at
the supposed rate, increase to the number of millions,
and might consequently comprehend the whole world
and the whole human race, in the greatest perfection
of the idea exhibited. The whole world might there-
fore he really changed into a paradise of the descrihed
kind, surpassing all conceptions hitherto, within the
first ten years, beginning with but 200,000 or 300,000

100

dollars. If it be not, nothing but ignorance, prejudice,
and dull adherence to custom are the causes of its
being retarded any longer ; for it is not poverty, not
insufficiency of means, as some lazy, prejudiced minds
might plead for their excuse — not one thousandth part
of the means within our possession is wanted ; it is not
want of chance for information on the subject, which
is offered here nearly gratis ; it is not want of clearness
in the proposal, for every explanation that may be
■wished for, is promised to be given satisfactorily, as
soon as an earnest desire and disposition for making
the experiment is shown, hy organizing an association
of a sufficient number of persons , with sufficient means,
for transacting business in an orderly way, in examining
the subject, and forming eventually the resolutions. Or
do the facts exhibited, perhaps, not deserve any such
attention ? — Examine them as close as you please,
and see then whether they are not the most joyful
and the most substantial truths that ever could be
shown to men ?

There is no claim made upon you, so you have no
imposition to fear; you are made acquainted with the
principal ideas of the proposals, and it is offered to you
all the specifications required to a perfect conviction.
All is done, and shall be done, in an honest, sincere
way ; there is no artifice, no enticement for vain and
hazardous speculations. If I be in error, it will be an
easy matter to discover and expose it. I defy any who
thinks himself capable for it to do so; to that purpose
I offer the opportunity for fair and open discussion
upon the subject. But it is a mathematical matter,
and none of vague opinion, or mere wordy dispute,

101

as some might perliaps fancy. Any assertion witliout
mathematical argument, will, and must be disregarded
by me. For talking at random about mathematical
subjects, and replying to it, is mere trifling, and to no
purpose; and trifling on a subject of so serious and
high an import as exhibited, is no mark of an intelligent
mind desirous after truth.

It will now be plainly seen that the execution of
the proposals is not proper for individuals. Whether
it be qualified for the government at this time, before
the subject is become popular, is a question to be
decided yet by the government itself ; it would certainly
be a great fortune and glory for the nation, if no pre-
judice would prevent the majority of the government
from bestowing attention upon the subject, and pro-
moting to application for the public benefit whatever
be found useful of it, by careful examination of some
committee. But whether this be the case or not, it
will not interfere with the interest of a society formed
for the purpose of investigating, and eventually
executing, the proposals; this might be supported by
the government, and aid the government on their side
in its acts.

The means for making the first experiment on a suf-
ficient large scale, will be a trifle for a larse society:
the principal required for the first establishment may
be laid out in shares, not greater than the price of a
lottery ticket, which may be subscribed previous to the
resolutions of the society ; for the funds must be ascer-
tained, before any resolution can be formed ujjon the
execution of any plan. The subscriptions, however,
need not be obligatory to the subscribers, but may be

K 2

102 V

made on the express condition to withdraw the ohli-
gation, in case general conviction of the practicahTlity
and utility of the proposals he not established, and at
least the majority of the subscribers do not concur in
the assent to the execution of the proposals. Orderly
free deliberations, and mutual communications, must
determine the resolution, as it is the case in ^all well-
regulated associations. For this purpose the following
Constitution is proposed.

INTRODUCTION.

Improvement of our condition is, and. ought to he,
our continual aim as long as we live. It behoves not
to rational men to abandon their improvement to
chance, or to the feeble inefficient efforts of individuals,
but to seek and employ the means for it, in the best
way that is in their power. Man, as an individual, is
weak, and whatever his means or abilities be, they
are always very limited, in comparison to those of many
men joined into one body. His contrivances and
pursuits can be but for his separate private interest,
and must therefore be very limited and transient, like
himself. He sees every where his interest opposed by
all with whom he has to deal, and must therefore
oppose his endeavours to all of those who deal with
him. Therefore, nothing great for the improvement
of his own condition, nor that of his fellow-men can
ever be effected by individual enterprises. Man is
powerful but in union with many.

The government of the state cannot interfere with
the domestic concerns ; it can only regulate the means

103

for keeping the citizens peaceably together, and for
pro'tecting every one in his rights; it may favour and
patronize improvements of any kind, but it cannot en-
force them. Men must concur freely in any measure
or enterprise for their own benefit, or else there is
counteraction and dissatisfaction.

An upion of men who make it their purpose to deli-
berate together upon all means for improvement of
their condition, that may come to their notice, is yet
a great desideratum. They may receive every propo-
sal to this effect, from within and out of their union,
examine the mertt of it, and deliberate upon. Majority
of votes in some cases of minor importance, unanimity
in cases of contribution, may decide the resolutions for
the whole union, while parts of them^ when the whole
union cannot agree, may form separate bodies for their
own purposes, without separating from the whole union
in all their other concerns. Individual prejudices
against new things would thus, by a liberal spirit of
deliberation, be weakened and removed, the minds en-
larged, mutual confidence, good dispositions, and union
promoted, and great things for improving mentally, and
physically, the human condition, effected, which could
never come to existence by mere individual endeavolirs.
Inventions and discoveries of every description may
find due rewards, in allowing a reasonable share of
their advantages, while they are practised by the union,
as encouragements to inventors for communicating
them, which else might never be sought after, or never
be communicated, and lost. The patents of the govern-
ment, for inventions and discoveries, arc but for petty,
private purposes, but not for improving the human

104 ,

condition at large; tlie)' can have, at best, but an in-
direct and remote influence, by chance, upon improve- •
ment in general.

The knowledge that is scattered among individuals,
and employed only in the limited extent which
petty private views will 'admit of, may be thus con-
centrated and made known to all the members of the
union ; a spirit for improvement will then be kindled,
and, by contributing but small sums for enterprises to
the benefit of the whole union, great things may be
effected, without great sacrifices of property, — things of
the greatest benefit, that by separate private enterprise
could never be attempted. " * . '

The benefits of all new things tending to the im-
provement of the human condition, will^hus be open
to all, both to the rich and poor, whoever will pai^ci-
pate of them, for a trifle if one chose, while larger
contributions entitle to proportionate larger shares in
the resulting benefits. The saving of human labour,
the increase of productions, is then no longer a curse
to the many, but a blessing, as it ought to be, to every
one, rich and poor, in the union.

With these views and tendency towards improve-
ment of the human condition, in physical, moral, and
intellectual respects, we unite ourselves by this present,
constitution, as follows:

1. The title of our union shall be,

" Association for the improvement of the human con-
dition J^

2. Every person is admissible to our association

which pays at least one share of dollars into our

treasury.

105 . :

3. At the end of years, any membev may sepa-
rate, and take his share of the common property out,
. either in cash or productions of tlie estahlishmeuts of

the association, as the majority think proper.
' 4. At the end of every jear, concluding with the

-; — of , each memher is' entitled to receive his

* share of the net profi-t of the establishment which he
■ or she shares in. .

5. The majority of the society decide in all cases,
, without, however, nullifying any existing obligati6n,
in which cases unanimity is required.
' 6. Two-thirds of the members are at least required
. 'ta form a^quorum in any assembly duly published be-
fore to' all members, and are empowered to act for the
' sofc>ej,y. '.

7vln every asserably, the day and place of the next
is to be appointed.

. 8. The society is to have one president, vice-
presidents, one secretary, vice-secretaries, and

one treasurer.

9. The president is the organ through which all
communications to and from the society are to be
made ; in the meetings he has to watch over a proper
decorum, and he may convoke extraordinary meetings
when required,

10. The vice-president has to act in the place of
the president, in case of absence or inability of the
president.

11. The secretary controls and records all trans-
actions of the president.

J2. The vice-secretary performs the ofiice of the

106

secretary, in case of the secretary's aljsence or in-
ability.

13. The treasurer receives and pays the money on
order of the president and secretary conjointly ; he is
subject to the special revision of the president and
secretary fonjoinlly, \Ahenever they judge proper : he
has to keep book in the prescribed method, and to give
account to the society, whenever called for; and he is
responsible for the treasury, for which he has to give
security.

14. The association is limited to no particular coun-
try or place, or number of members, and may extend
to any part of the world, by co-ordinate branches, ccm-
stituied in the same manner; which branches may
be denominated by successive numbers; and every
branch may again be divided into parts, each con-
siliuted in the same manner as the whole. All
branches are connected by deputies, in a central con-
gress of the whole association, and the parts of a
branch likewise by deputies in general meetings of
the branch.

15. All branches, and parts of branches, communi-
cate reciprocally all their informations received, or
experiments made, when of general interest.

16. Any branch, and part of branch, may form
separate establishments independent of more general
enterprises.

1/. Any invention, improvement, or discovery enti-
tles the inventor or discoverer, or his assignees or
heirs, for the first ten years of their application, to one
tenth of the advantages resulting therefrom to the

107

association, or to any individual or individuals of the
same, making separate or joint use with others of the
invention, improvement, or discovery ; and thereafter,
fur ever, to one-twentieth of the benefits resulting
tlierefrom, to the same extent and meaning as ex-
pressed, or to one-twentieth of the property invested in
the application of the same invention, improvement,
or discovery.

18. If any improvement be made on such invention
or improvement, by some other person, it diminishes
not the original share of the first inventor, as before
stipulated ; but the inventor of the new improvement
is entitled to one-tenth in the ten first years of its
a-pplication, and to one-twentieth ever thereafter, only
of those advantages that his improvement affords to
the society, or any part, or individual or individuals,
over and above the advantages of the original inven-
tion, and so forth with every other, second, third, <Scc.,
improvement on what was known before.

1.9. Every member, as well as every branch or part
ofbranch of the association, obligate themselves to the
same conditions of the two foregoing articles, if they
make use in any way of such invention, improvement,
or discovery.

20. Tiie association, or any branch of it, or any part
of branch of it, cannot dissolve, or dispose of any esta-
blishment, before they have satisfied, as stipulated,
the inventor or discoverer for his share in it.

21. Every member of the society, and every branch,
or part oi branch, is to receive a copy of the Constitu-
tion.

108

Tlur^ you may spread a net over the whole world,
not for ensnaring, oppressing;, and enslaving men, as
has heen done hitherto, but for exercising the most
beneficial influence, for preventing all hurtful and
dangerous consequences, and violent revolutions that
might follow from an introduction of these means
without precaution ; for, by a system of association
that opens the way to all the henefits to he derived
from the new means for the poor and the rich, no
Tiolence or opposition can ensue ; hut all men will
simultaneously enjoy the benefits, wherever they are
introduced, while the first undertakers reap all the
fruits of their enterprises that can possibly be reaped,
in perfect security. You have to offer to the human
iind at large the most substantial gifts, the direct road
to the greatest happiness that man is capable to enjoy
in this world ; not vain, empty, delusive systems or
doctrines, but all the physical enjoyments imaginable.
Man must first be satisfied with his physical wants,
and be liberated from the slavery of work, before his
mind can be accessible to superior culture. After you
have done with the physical wants, then you may
gradually shed the mild beams of better information
into the mind, and render it more and more adapted
to enjoy a superior life of a refined society.

Who has to make a beginning with this great work ?
You yourself, reader, whatever your station in so-
ciety, your fortune, your education, be. You have no
reason to stay behind any of your fellow-men, and wait
for what he is going to do, as soon as you are convinced
of the truth of what has been demonstrated ; for, if
every one would wait for his neighbour, with acting
his part, there would never be any acting, and man

109 .

would be a ver^ ridiculous animal. Did you ever ask,
who is to speak aiul to vote first or last in your public
affairs? If a mountain of gold were shown to you,
accessible to every one, would you ask who is to stir
first, and wait for any of your neighbours ? Is what
is here presented to you, perhaps, of less value ? — Exa-
mine, reflect again. What is then to be done for
your part, to promote this great cause ? — The same
thing you do in public concerns ; express indepen-
dently your conviction wherever you may have some
influence. The constituting of a society, no matter
how small, in your neighbourhood, is to be the first
object; and on notice of it to me, under the direction
given at the end of this book, further communication
will be made. Thus you may give independently the
first impulse to this great work, whatever your circum-
stances be. Do not wail just for men of better learn-
ing, or higher standing, or greater fortune ; for this
is a matter of reason, and sound active reason is not
the exclusive endowment of learning, fortune, or
rank; none of these circumstances exempt from pre-
judice and mental weakness ; experiences prove this
amply every day. The way for putting ihe matter to
the test is pointed out; it is plain, and without ex-
penses: the execution of the proposals itself requires no
fortune; small shares of twenty dollars will be sufll-
cient; and even these may be accepted partly in work,
after a small part is paid to the treasury of the so-
ciety.

There is then no sacrifice, no risk, but incalculable
fortune and glory attending to this cause. All what
is to be done, is, to slop forth, after mature reflection,

L

no

to confess loudly one's conviction, and to constitute so-
cieties, which are to increase hy offering reception to
whomsoever will join, till the suhscribed shares afford
sufficient means for making' the first experiment.

The names of the first supporters of this great and
most glorious cause of human kind can never sink into
oblivion, as long as there will be any record of the
past, and any feelings of gratitude in the human
bosom, and as long as the name of enlightemng
will have a meaning; they will resound Avith grati-
tude and respect in all languages of their cotempo-
raries and after -ages ; they will be celebrated in
feasts of public joy and grateful feelings, from one
extremity of tlje world to the other, like you do now
with those of your first brave assertors of yournational
independence and the rights of man. Those bold
and humane proclaimers of independence and liberty
had put their lives, their fortunes, and their honour
at slake. You have nothing to risk, nothing to en-
counter, except perhaps the feeble efforts of vulgar
prejudices and thoughtless frivolity, which are apt
to throw the ridicule on whatever is above their
little notions. Fouls will glory in ridiculing what
they do not understand, because it gives them the
appearance of wits in the eyes of weak minds ; but
men of good sense will inform themselves before they
judge of the n;atter. Is any of you perhaps afraid of
the little endeavours of such fools ? — They might be
easily silenced ; but you may as well let them have
the little fun, and disgrace themselves as much as they
please : men of good sense ought not ta be impeded
by puerilities of others, in their proceedings for such a

Ill

serious and most important cause that ever could
actuate rational men.

Is there, perhaps, any thing* unreasonable or imprac-
ticable in the proposed manner of execution ? — There
are extensive societies in our country for pecuniary
and philanthropical purposes of various kinds. There
are missionary societies for all quarters of the globe,
with great expenses, and no pecuniary gain to the con-
tributors. There are lyceum and other associations
throughout the whole nation for the general improve-
ment of man. There are many societies for humane
purposes. There are societies for constructing canals
and roads, with millions of dollars of expenses, with
but uncertain prospect to immediate gain. There are
social enterprises with large funds for hazardous com-
mercial purposes on land and sea. There have been
voluntary contributions of large amounts for the be-
nefit of foreign peoples.

Arc the objects presented here less worthy of notice
than any of those for which the people have spent vo-
luntarily large sums.^ — Do the objects presented here
not include every object of philanthropy and specula-
tion of any kind, and infinitely more than ever has
been thought of? — Or does the attainment of the
grand objects in view require more means than there
have been spent and are spending for purposes very
inferior in every respect to the present?

The numerous expensive enterprises for improve-
ments by associations, bespeak too manifestly the Ame-
rican character and spirit for social great enterprises,
as to require here my demonstration on the utility and
practicability of social enterprises.

112

Associations give decided advantages in all cases
over individual enterprises ; and it is only hy associa-
tions lliat our nation achieves great enterprises, and
may gain the superiority over all other nations in every
respect.

There is nothing in iny proposals that the Americans
do not practise already, nothing new, but the objects
themselves to be attained. Thus the manner, as well
as the matter, as far as exhibited, leave no reasonable
objection ; and if the execution of the proposals should
be retarded nevertheless, it would be but owing to dull
prejudice that prevents attention and reflection, — a dis-
grace to the American people, which, for its conse-
quences, could never be enough lamented.

Should, indeed, among twelve or thirteen millions of
men that form our nation, not be found enough men
capable of raising their minds above their every day's
concerns! If this should be the case, then it is not
true that the American nation is to be the first and
most enlightened on earth ; for these means would then
inevitably pass into the hands of some other people,
\vhich might easily nsc them for making a prey or
subject province of this country. When then hereafter
the present exultation of the Americans in their na-
tional progress, should be compared with their neglect
of means, offered with all the evidence that can rea-
sonably be desired, for raising them at once to the
highest station of national power and influence over
the whole world, and of general human happiness, —
liow should the intelligent world then judge of our
nation ? — Why, not better than we do now of the
cotemporaries of Columbus, Galileo, and other dis-

113

coverers of great truths contradictory to tlie vulgar
erroneous notions of their times, when we read their
history of the conllicts between the active reason of
single individuals, and the slothful, brutal adherence
to customary notions of the multitude — we deem our-
selves happy to live in a better enlightened age, and
among a more intelligent people.
I have shown now, —

1. That there are powers at our disposal, million
times greater than all men on earth could effect by
their united exertions of nerves.

I have derived the proofs of them from the most
common experiences.

2. How these powers may be converted into perpe'
tual motions with uniform powers.

3. What system of establishments and machineries
is to be applied for doing all works by machinery,
without hibour; that there are but three or four
simple contrivances required.

4. How by association, and shares of but twenty or
fifty doHars, the first establishment is to be created;
how, by means of this, the future establishments are to
be created, without expenses and labour; and how, in
five or ten years, even an universal paradise superior to
all what is known may be created.

I have thus fulfilled my first promises. I ofi'er to
give any further explanations on these subjects that
may be required, as soon as an association is organized.
I shall communicate all the required details of the
mechanism of the machinery to be applied, when the
association is large enough, and has at least 200,000

l2

114

dollars subscribed for the first establishment, and
agreed to the conditions in the proposed constitution
expressed. This is necessary to insure success, and
not to deprive myself of the means for being active in
this cause. It is, however, uiklerstood, that the society
keep all their funds to be applied in their own hands,
and that I engage myself only to communicate all
what is requisite for the execution of the plans. This
communication shall be made in full, without any
reserve, gratis, if I do not convince perfectly the
society of the practicability of the proposals ; and I
reserve only in the case of executing the proposals the
share in the profit as stipulated in the proposed con-
stitution.

Thus, every member will be at liberty to withdraw
his obligation, after all communications are made of me.

I have thus done, and am willing to do, all what
reasonably can be desired of me.

It is now put into the power of the intelligent
reader to judge, whether my proposals are founded in
reason, in evident truths, as I assert, or not. If they
are, they must be the strongest inducement for further
inquiry; they must anniLilate all the preconceptions
against them, and convince the mind, that the attain-
ment of the immense objects in view are by no means
impossible; and that the application of the exhibited
immense powers requires but adapted contrivances, of
which the system is also stated. This is what I in-
tended by this address ; and I have now to wait for
the effect it \ull produce, before I can do any thing
more in this cause. I consider this address as a touch-

115

stone, to try whether our nation is in any way acces-
sible to these great truths, for raising tlie human
creature to a superior state of existence, in accordance
with the knowledges and the spirit of the most culti-
vated minds of the present time — or whether 1 have to
look out for a more congenial spirit somewhere else.
For it cannot reasonably be expected, that I should
doom such glorious discoveries to the grave, merely
out of regard to dulness and unjustifiable prejudice
of any people in the world.

Americans ! you are offered things which you could
not buy by mountains of gold, and if they were as
large as your rocky mountains. You are offered to
live henceforth in magnificent, beautiful, and brilliant
palaces, which the mightiest monarchs on earth were
too poor to have ; in blissful paradises, where all is
splendour, beauty, and delight ; where luxuriancy of
growth affords superabundance of all what is delicious
to man ; where you may array yourselves in all what
is beautiful and brilliant ; where you may lead a life
of continual feast, free of labour, of want and fear of
want, in endless variety of enjoyments and pleasures,
in rapidly increasing knowledges for removing and
lessening more and more the evils of nature incident
to human life, and enjoying invigorated vitality. You
are offered the dominion over the world, not by iron
sway of tyrants, but by benign influence on the happi-
ness of humankind, by attaching men to you by the
most substantial blessings on earth. You are ofll'ered

U6

the means to change the whole face of nature, on land
and sea, into whatever man wishes to see, by magic-
like power. You have afforded hitherto an asylum to
the oppressed and persecuted of foreign nations — a
far greater glory is reserved to you. You may hence-
forth cause a regeneration of mankind to a far supe-
rior kind of beings, with superior enjoyments, know-
ledges, and powers.

You have here the fundament of this discovery :
some people may ridicule it, but they cannot disprove
it; it is mathematically demonstrated before you.
The remaining details shall be communicated to you,
when you show an earnest desire for knowing them.

Look at the powers and means that are stated be-
fore you with mathematical evidence. Can you
discover any material error in the statement? If not,
can any of you behold them with dull insensibility,
or perhaps with childish derision ! — Can any of you
refuse his most eager inquiry into the offered means ?
Can any of you behold these joyful and awful means
without trembling, for fear some foreign people may
come to the knowledge and possession of them before
you, and abuse them for enslaving you and tarnishing
your national glory for ever ?

You are offered to associate into bodies, for close
investigation and mature deliberation, to ascertain the
merit of the proposals, without expenses : you may
then induce your government to patronise or lead the
applications of the means, if you think proper.

Ye, who form the councils of the nation, and who
are the leaders of the people — here is an extensive un-

1!7

trodden field for the exercise of your wisdom, talents,
patriotism, and beneficial influence on mankind at
large — the time is come when you are put to the
alternative, to show to the world, whether you are
guided by wisdom or prejudice. It is not a mere
transient, humble individual that speaks to you ; it
is omnipotent truth proved and recorded, which will
bear incorruptible witness to the world either for or
against you.

THE

PARADISE

WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL MEN,

WITHOUT LABOUR,

BY POWERS OF NATURE AND MACHINERY,

AN ADDRESS

TO ALL INTELLIGENT MEN.

IN TWO PARTS.

BIT jr. A. £TZIi£Ifi.

SECOND PART.

Toil and poverty will be no more among men
Nature affords infinite powers and wealth ;
Let us but observe and reason.

The wise examines before he jud ges;
The fool judges before he examines.

. LONDON;

JOHN BROOKS, 421, OXFORD STREET
MDCCCXXXVI.

The first part explains the general ideas on the sub-
ject of the paradise to he created for all men. This
second part is to point out the gradual proceedings for
the introduction of those means into our country.

1 shall here begin with the most simple and the
least expensive experiment, and then pursue, step by
step, the most natural course to be taken in this
country, until all the ultimate objects of the paradise
be attained.

No country in the world is evidently better situated
and constituted for the application of the means in
contemplation, without the least detrimental conse-
quences to any person, than the United States. Free
from the blast of arbitrary despotism, with an unculti-
vated territory, sufficient for the reception of more
than one hundred millions of men, which might revel
here in superabundance of all necessaries, comforts,
and luxuries of life, the United States might easily
accelerate their march towards their supreme power
and influence over the whole world, by inducing emi-
grants from Europe to settle in our extensive wilder-
nesses in the west, with the application of the proposed
means. It would require from Congress nothing more
than to grant tracts of land for settlements, on reason-
able terms, with a credit for a few years. The pay for

M

122

such land might be discharged by extensive improve-
ments for the benefit of the nation, such as rail-roads,
canals, draining of swamps, dams along rivers against
noxious inundations, establishments for new settlers
and travellers, vehicles for transporting men, and things
of any bulk and weight, over land and water, to the
immense benefit of the community at large, which the
new means aff'ord.

The first society for the application of some or all
the proposed means, after having made some small
establishment for the practice and exhibition of them,
may obtain from the government patents for their new
inventions, and for tracts of land to be settled and cul-
tivated by their new means.

The immense forests of the nation afford not the
least income, even for generations to come yet, if
things go on as hitherto. The application of the pro-
posed means, and if it were but for the cultivation of
soil at the beginning, by which man may change,
without labour, any wilderness into the finest gardens,
to any extent of the country, would rapidly draw a
vast concourse of emigrants from the older parts of
the United States, and chiefly from Europe, to our
unsettled western country, if our government would
make some suitable provisions of laws for encouraging
settlements, which might easily be done, to the great
incalculable benefits both to the settlers and the
nation in general. It is not the extent of surface that
adds any thing to the power and weal of the nation ; it
is the increase of population and aggregate wealth that
constitute our national greatness. If we have means
to produce that greatness of our nation within our

123

time, what reason should there be to leave this to be
done by a remote posterity? Where is the man
whose pulse will not beat quicker, when he conies to
understand the means for rendering our free country,
within a few years, the most beautifully cultivated one
in the whole world — to see our immense monotone
woods and dismal sw:amps turned into the most de-
lightful gardens, abounding of every thing that
pleases the sight, and taste, and the smell, and the
fancy ; to travel on beautifully bordered rivers, canals?
rail-roads, in any direction, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean, within a few days, in all imaginable
comforts and ease? And this would be but part
of the results of the application of all the means
proposed.

Let but the first experiment be known in Europe ;
grant to emigrants land, as much as they want to cul-
tivate, on fair terms, and a credit of from three to ten
years — which will be no risk for the government, and
none for the settlers ; and you will see the effects ! —
The dense population in Europe, the abhorred system
of government there, the universal dissatisfaction of
the great mass of the people, the distress and oppres-
sion that afflict the majority of the people, the certain
prospect to a far happier life, without exertions, in
this country — all will conspire to direct unheard-of
torrents of emigrations to our country ; add to this>
that henceforth the ocean may be crossed in a few
days by new, powerful means, not in fragile vessels,
but on indestructible floats, or floating islands, with-
out danger, in all comforts and ease.
Americans ! this is the course you have to take, and

124

your unparalleled glory and dominion over tlic world
is a decided matter.

This course is in accordance with the proceedings
you have followed hitherto. It is quite natural to
your situation, to your constitution and laws. Con-
gress grant tracts of land to societies which undertake
the cultivation of the grape, or of the silkworm, or of
some produces that may add to the henefit of the com-
munity at large ; and the same grant patents for in-
ventions and improvements: our constitution requires
to do so, because it behoves to an enlightened nation
to encourage whatever tends to the improvement of
the human condition, in physical, moral, and intellec-
tual respects. Nothing else is required now, for in-
ducing people of our own and foreign countries to
apply the proposed means for changing your barren
forests into gardens of delight and superabundance.
Millions and tens of millions will, and must, emigrate
from distressed Europe within a few years. The
knowledge of the proposed means, the first and sim-
plest experiments, in their application will powerfully
excite the minds, and facilitate emigration, and set-
tling in wildernesses, in a degree unexperienced yet.
It is nothing but your liberal institutions, that may
attract the tide of emigrants from Europe to your coun-
try, in preference to others. The American country is
extensive, and very thinly inhabited. The middle and
southern parts afford superior climates, and are not
inferior to the United States in any other respect, ex-
cept in their progress of civilisation and institutions.
Hitherto emigrants and new settlers had to encounter
many dangers, hardships, and difficulties, and a great

125

part of tliem fell victims to their enterprising spirit.
Tb.ey had to undergo hard labour, to cut the trees
vith the axe, to unroot the brushes wiih the hoe, to
rtmove and destroy the massy piles of timber and
brushes, to work with the spade and the plough, to
reap with the sickle and scythe, &c. &c. ; they
hi'.d to pay the work of beasts for draught dearly, by
raising large crops for their food, with hard toil;
they had no other prospects for many years, but con-
tinual hard labour ; the hopes of acquiring gradually
an indepc.ident situation, and improvement of their
condition, could only induce them to set about for
ruch arduous task. But how many have been sadly
disappointed in their fond hopes?— Sickness and pre-
mature death, in consequence of unwholesome exha-
lations of putrid swamps, or decaying vegetables in
tluir r.ci;.!:libourhood, of being compelled to expose
their bodies to all the bad influences of wet, heat, and
cob!, — of improper food, over-exertions of their bodily
strength, — have but too frequently been the rewards for
their l•au(^•^ble enterprises. Look at the western popu-
lation in the backwoods ! — Tbe emaciated pale faces
of the greatest part, especially in summer, exhibit the
enfeebled state of their health.

J3;it, si'ppose extensive tracts of land, cleared at
once from their spontaneous growth, that kept the soil
in pcvpetiial shade, the rivers and creeks confined in
properly narrowed channels by dams, the swamps
drained by ditches, or filled up, the decaying vege-
tables removed, the soil in this state exposed to the
rays of the sun for one or more years ; suppose such
an improvement to be, not for some hundreds of acres,

M 2

126

as you find them now at most, but for ten, twenty, or
more miles in diameter— and you will have a climate
as fine and healthy as any where on the globe may be
found under equal latitude. This can be effected,
without human labour, within one year, by one of the
most simple means of my proposals. Render such
improvements of land any where in our western
countries accessible to the poor as well as to the rich,
which may be done to the greatest benefits for the
nation, for the owners of the ground, and for the set-
tlers themselves ; and your wildernesses will soon be
thronged with inhabitants, feeling themselves happier
than ever a people was. Your hideous wilderness,
that is now but the habitation of brutes, and venom-
ous or loatlisonie vermin, and a few scattered misera-
ble Indians, will rapidly become the delightful abodes
of happy, intelligent, human beings. By a simple
application of the new means, the soil so prepared,
will be covered with luxuriant growth of all desirable
vegetables that the climate admits of, the finest gar-
dens, extending many miles in every direction, in
beautiful arrangement and symmetry, will, at once
appear. Snakes, mosquitoes, and other troublesome
vermin will have disappeared, the causes of their
existence being annihilated. These first great things
may be effected by the superintendence of two or
four men, at the rate of several hundred acres per
day !

The next objects to be created are those buildings
which the proposed means afford. It would be folly
itself to live in buildings of our present make, which
require now so much ado, and are, after all, compara-

J27

tively speaking, but poor contrivances. People may
then please their own fancy, and adapt the buildings
to their utmost "wishes, without working, or troubling
themselves, and uilhout expenses of account.

Next to the habitations in all the devised novel
splendour, and enjoyments, and comforts, come the
furnitures, garments, and dresses into consideration ;
and establishments for the productions of the proposed
kind, are to be created and put into operation.

It will readily be conceived, that not every commu-
nity needs an establishment for composing and con-
structing the materials for buildings, and other com-
modities, furnitures, machineries, dress, Sec. ; but one
• establishment of the kind is suiTicient for many com-
munities, after roads and means for transporting great
weights are established.

Next to tin?-, floating islands, constructed of the
materials which the piesent spontaneous growth of
timber chiefly aflbrd, for crossing the ocean at the rate
of 1000 miles in twenty-four hours. These large
floats, covered with earth and buildings, propelled by
mighl)i engines, that the powers of the motions of the
ocean, the wind, and the heat of the sun, at once may
operate upon, will be used for carrying the surplus of
productions to distant markets, and taking in return
the surplus of foreign climates, and thousands of
emigrating families, i'or settling in the new prepared
country.

These emigrations and new settlements must, in
the progress of the new means, become cheaper and
cheaper, and soon be almost of no expenses at all to

128

the undertakers, while they yield uncalculable benefits
to the same, to the nation, and the settlers.

It is incumbent to the government of the United
States to take the lead of these great events, and it
will have to make some arrangement. If the govern-
ment understands the interest of the nation, it cannot
help affording every facility and encouragement to
new-comers from the old country; for their settling is
an increase of the nation, and even more valuable than
any conquest in foreign countries. It will require but
little additions to the present provisions of laws for
peopling the uninhabited regions of the United
States. What the most beneiicial arrangements are
to be, will immediately be suggested by the nature of
the means, and the advantages to be derived from a
great population. Sound policy will permit emigra-
tion as long as there is any good to be derived for the
nation ; and this is the case as long as there is room
enough for producing the suflicient necessaries and
comforts for the whole population. This policy must
not only iWt throw no impediment in the way of emi-
grating and settling ; but it must also facilitate the
same, and make> all the arrangements the new means
afford. These arrangements consist but in increasiing
|lie simple machineries as proposed ; and these machi-
neries are of such materials as will cost little or
nothing ; the converting of the raw materials into the
machineries and buildings, and the other articles for
the use of men cost nothing.

The immediate effect of the application of the new
means will be, that all what now constitutes wealth

129

will lose its value. So what is at present called wealth
will be of no consideration. The emiu;rants from
foreign countries need not to have property ; and if
they have, it will be of little use. For what bencHt
could they derive from it here, when the new means
are in application? — The means for their transport,
floating- islands on sea, and large vehicles on adapted
roads by land, are made by machineries that cost no-
thing ; they are propelled by powers that cost nothing,
and conducted by men whose labour is not required ;
who live thereon at ])leasure, and may cost nothing, or
an insignificant trifle at most. The soil is prepared by
machineries, the buildings are erected, the articles of
use and comfort are made, by machineries that cost
nothing. So the emigrants may find every thing
prepared for reception ; they have but to take posses-
sion, learn to superintend the new establishments, and
continue to improve their happy situation. In return
for these great benefits, which could now not be bought
by any wealth, they have only to enlarge their estab-
lishments, their cullivation of soil, their buildings 5cc.,
to multiply new establishments for other new settlers,
to extend the roads and other improvements, for the
general benefit of the nation, by their increasing means
and machineries, which will cost nothing but the su-
perintendence of a small portion of themselves. This
is the proceeding of all emigrants. Their actual pro-
perty will then be of no account. The whole arrange-
ments will then consist in making contracts with the
emigrants for paying their new possessions created in
that matter as mentioned, by making certain other
establishments of the same kind, roads, dams, floats,

130

and other new improvements, within a certain time,
by their new means. This requires no habour on their
part, and no wealth, but only some pleasant attention
and occupation, by turn, amoni^ themselves. Their pro-
perty of the present kinds, if they had any, could effect
nothing in all these new purposes, and would be, at
most, but a trifling addition. All wants are to be sup-
plied by the productions of the means, or by the ex-
change of surplus with that of foreign climates. All
tliis is to be effected in a general way, without expenses
of individuals. All artificial productions of our pre-
sent time can then have but very little, or no intrinsic
value, they being superseded by other productions, that
cost nothing. So whatever can be bought with money
now, will have no value. If the artificial products
should be of any use at all, it must be to place some
of them into the museum, merely to preserve them
for after ages : they may then excite curiosity, as spe-
cimens of our present industry ; they may then truly
excite wonder at the great pains we have taken for
producing so few little things and small toys, nearly in
the same manner as when we behold in a museum
now the curious trifles of savages.

Therefore, it is not what we call now wealth, but
the number of human individuals and intelligence,
in which you will have to look for the increase of
national wealth, and power, and influence.

Thus, without a combined system of arrangements,
but merely by contracts, that require no sacrifice from
the nation on one side, and neither wealth nor exertion
from the settlers on the other side, a new and infinitely
happier state of things than any conceived yet, may be

131

effected in our country, and gradually in the whole
world, without any violence ; for one community, or
settlement, will always provide for a number of others
to come after tliem ; then every one of these has to do
the same for others to succeed, and so forth. Suppose,
for instance, a community should finish in one year
nine establishments, with buildings and the finest
gardens sufficient for at least 1000 individuals each,
it would then require no more than, at most, ten
men's continual employment ; and if the community
have 500 adults proper for it, it would require, out of
fifty days, one for attendance of every one. So every
community may increase, without exertion or tedious
occupation of any human being, but in a play-like
manner, to ten communities, provided with the most
sumptuous habitations and gardens, and every thing
desirable. The communities would thus increase in
theprogression,— 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000,
&c. Supposing every community to be of 1000 indi-
viduals, the sixth succession would amount to 100
millions of men, with completed establishments of the
new purposed kind. At the sujiposed rate, in six years
the whole European population might be provided for
in the stated manner.

Thus your country may soon be densely populated,
and a continual garden from the Atlantic to the Pa-
cific Ocean, filled with all that is delightful to man ;
with palaces, and roads with locomotive conveniences,
in every direction for travelling, \\ithin two or three
days, from one extremity of the United Slates to the
other, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Many

132

p^reat things, not thought of yet, y.\\\ then he imme-
diately executed. You will acquire rapidly tlie means
for effecting- in one year more than hitherto could he
done in thousands of years, hy the densest population.
Your government will then have to pursue ohjects
widely different from what they are now, and of a far
greater extent, and of a superior kind. Your system
of society will he far less complicated. There will he
no tax-gathering, no occasion for complicated laws
for the protection of private property. Your military
power will be of a nature quite different from what it
is now. Other means, other powers are at your dis-
posal ; and prudence will compel you to keep your
superiority in power over other nations safe, by a due
regard to the application of the new means.

Your present constitution is sufficient for the new
order of things ; and it is the most favourable for po-
pulating your country to the greatest general happiness
of the inhabitants.

You may lay out your wilderness into convenient
districts of moderate extent: every district will rise
into an independent state, as soon as its population will
amount to 50,000 individuals ; and may then make its
own laws. Thus people who are assimilated in lan-
guage, dialects, manners, and customs, may unite
themselves at their emigration and settling for the
same district, until they arc numerous enough to form
a slate.

Thus your wilderness, now not of the least use to
you, may be, within ten years, filled with intelligent
inhabitants of many different tongues, in separate

133

states, uuitinj^ with you under your wise constitution
into one oreat nation, and keeping- in awe the rest of
the world.

Your objects will then be, to have effected, with
your g:igantic means, every thing that may contribute
to the convenience and happiness of tlie inhabitants,
and to render your whole country a paradise as much
as possible.

Not only wealth and physical means for the general
benefit, but chiefly increase and diffusion of useful
knowledges and intelligence throughout the whole
population will then be the objects of your government.
For you and your new settlers will then be no more
slaves to labour; there will be no poor rapacious being
in human shape, that must be kept by compulsive
means and dread in submission ; for whatever man
sees there, he may freely partake of, without trouble
or pay. They will be all wealthy, and a great deal
wealthier than the wealthiest among you now. So
there will be no object of robbery and cheat. Men
have then time to receive instruction, to pursue the
road towards the increase of their intelligence ; they
may do it without exertions: for real knowledges re-
quire but observation; and this is always excited in
placing the things themselves before the eyes of men,
who are naturally too curious, as not to observe what-
ever strikes their minds. This is all what will be re-
quired : and you will be under no limit of wealth to
effect it. Thus it is, that the most intelligent class
among you may spread intelligence (knowledge of real
things) through the mass of men, by proper institutions
for education and public instruction, by museums, Sec. ;

N

134

and ignorance and its offspring, superstition, will be
dispelled without other efforts, like mist is dispelled
by the rays of the sun.

Besides your own benefits, that must result in the
highest degree of happiness that your nature be capa-
ble to enjoy, and of which you can have at present no
perfect idea, look at the great, fortunate effect that you
will produce upon other peoples ! Europe is fraught
with bloody revolutions and wars : you will cause
outlets to its dense, distressed population, and save
thereby great bloodsheds. The slaves in your country
will cease to be slaves, without any effort, without any
new law, without any loss to their masters ; for the
new mechanical means will supersede their employ-
ment : there will be no use for slaves any longer to
any purpose ; they will be of no value whatever to
their masters ; they will have no occasion for them.
You may then easily dispose of this unfortunate race
of men in the manner you please: send them to some
distant part of the world, if you think proper; colonize
them, make them as happy as they can be, and make
some amends for the grievous wrongs they have suf-
fered in this country.

While you are sending away this race for your own
benefit, you may fill your country with the most ci-
vilized and most intelligent part of the European po-
pulation. The sciences and arts which tend to the
improvement of the human condition, in physical and
intellectual respects, will then flourish in your land and
be diffused, not merely among a small, fortunate class
of men, as hitherto, but throughout the mass of the
people, who are no more under the ignominious yoke

135

of hard labour for their subsistence ; but who will then
have leisure and means in plenty for the cultivation of
their minds. Europe is almost overstocked with men
of learning, so that the greatest part of them have to
take recourse to meaner employments for their sub-
sistence, and who would find themselves very happy
in employments suitable to their talents and know-
ledges, being provided with plenty of every thing to
their reasonable wishes, in a situation of all the re-
finements of human enjoyments and social pleasures,
abounding with means for study and investigation in
their respective branches of useful learning. Present
them such situation, that will cost you nothing, and
you will see thousands of teachers emigrating, and
many of the most eminent acquirements.

Thus your nation will rapidly increase, not merely
in bulk, but with intelligent people of all civilized na-
tions. Such will be your glorious conquests : you will
conquer the minds of the most intelligent part of man-
kind, without fire and sword, but by your superior in-
stitutions and geographical advantages, and by your
means for general human happiness ; they will come
to you, and join you, not as mean subjects, but as
brethren and sisters. Humanity, mutual benevolence,
will no longer be stifled by mean, sordid avarice, the
necessary consequence of want, and fear of want. They
will enjoy their lives in your new, happy land : its
products will he as cheap and as free as air and water ;
for they will require no longer the human exertions.
In return for these benefits, you may reap the advan-
tages of their knowledges, and thus gradually increase
and difi'use intelligence throughout the nation.

136

Is this, perliaps, but a (.lieain : — Europe will be
approached to you within three or four days' jour-
ney. Your powerful floating islands will rapidly
increase at your coasts to the east and west. Your
immense forests will, without labour or expense, be
quickly converted into large, massy floats of convenient
timber : they may carry away from Eurojte millions
of men within a few weeks. No power can prevent
them from so doing. There is no danger, no tedious
journey, no expense, no inconvenience, no hardship
on these floats, no uncertainty in speed, no fear of
attack ; they may be rendered impregnable fortresses.
Where should then be the reason to deem the exhibited
idea a dream ? — The powers are immense, of no ex-
pense, the means for their application to such effects
simple without expense ! — No — ignorance and preju-
dice only may deem such things impossible, because
they never reasoned — but I appeal to reason. Should
this, my appeal, be in vain among you, what then ? —
Why, the eff"ect will, and must then turn against you.
What would become of your nation, if the same means
should be turned against you from populous Europe?
Neither your distance, nor your extensive woods, nor
your gunpowder, could protect you against the means
that these powers aff'ord. — Look to this while it is lime!
llenceforth it is no more the strength of the human
arm, or the number of men, nor personal courage and
bravery, nor the talents of military commanders, nor
the advantages of geographical situations, that give
power to a nation, but it is intelligence (knowledge of
useful things). Those who will not advance with the
progress of the time, but who pride themselves in

137

adhering blindly to old notions, are like crazy men,
who would run with their eyes shut : both must get
hurt.

Our present time has brought forth the knowledge
of new things; is it wise for any man to slight them,
under any pretence whatever?

Europe will almost come into contact with America,
within three days' journey ! — It depends now from you
whether you will take advantage of this approach, or
give it away. If you take it in time, you will have
it for ever; — if you leave the chance to other nations
before you, you will have lost it for ever : for what
could you do against an inundation of armies with
new kinds of weapons, against which you are defence-
less— with migrations of millions, headed by irresisti-
ble engines and foreign despots ?

The powers and means presented to you here may
prove, in the hands of barbarity, a curse, a slavery of
nations, and in llie hands of intelligence, the greatest
blessings for mankind.

There is yet another danger to be apprehended, if
these means should be left to chance, without some
social arrangement. JNIan's laboui' will lose all value;
there will be no demand for it ; things will become
cheaper and cheaper : but wherewith shall the la-
bouring class buy, if they have nothing to pay with ?
Violences will be consequences of necessity, and the
end hurtful on all sides; therefore, some social arrange-
ments are to be made for preventing bad conse-
quences; and it is rational to introduce the most
pr()])cr system for applying these discoveries to the
N 2

138

greatest benefit that can be derived from them, before
it is too late.

A now state of society, anew constitution of state,
entirely different from any extant, without, however,
being in contradiction with the constitution of the
United States, is to be inseparable from the general
practice of the new means.

What this new statfe of society, this new constitution
of state, is to be, will the necessary effects of the prac-
tice of these means suggest of themselves. The new .
state of society, the new institutions and laws, are to be
far less artificial and less complicated , than they are
at present. What perplexity is there now in raising
taxes, in enacting and applying laws for ilie protec-
tion of persons and property ! How frequently is it
not a matter of the greatest sagacity and historical
knowledges of jnridicial decisions, and the most subtle
scrutiny, to discern right from Nvrong, even in the most
important cases ! What volumes of laws, and deci-
sions of courts, arc not often to be searched and con-
sulted for instruction in law cases ! Old laws of times
which we now call barbarous and superstitious, even
of Old England and the ancient Roman Em])ire, are
often to be the guides in this country, contradictory as
they be among themselves and to a mo're enlightened
age ; and how little good "ensues very often from their
application ! How scanty are the provisions of public
institutions for the general weal, for want of means !

How different must be the new state of things? —
All the physical wants are supplied abundantly, in a
general way, without manual labour, A .small com-

. 139

pensiUion, at most, is perliaps for a time required from
tliereccivers of the bencCits; which .may consist in a
few, days' superintendence of. machinery in twelve
months, of every one, by rotation. Jt will not more be
the business of the individual to provide for himself;
but it will be the concern'of the state or community
to provide with a sufficient store of every thing neces-
sary or desirable forall its members. For the produces
of the soil, and their preparation for food and use are
. the objects of general establishmeilts, that require no
labour and no further expense. The surplus of the
productions are to be applied to furnish, by exchange,
the articles wanted from foreign climates. This again
is to be done, not by small conveyances of individuals, '
but l)y new means of transport, of great powers, and
the superintendence of but a few men, which are ade-
quate to do tlie commercial or exchanging business
for many communities, or a whole state at once. The
exchanged articles, again, are the pvoperty of the com-
munity at large, and to be applied or distributed ac-
cording to individual wants, so as to afford equal be-
nefits to all members. Elxtraordinary desires of indi-
viduals may be satisfied thereby, by giving timely
notice of it, provided the objects be not out of
reason.

Thus all the articles of fbod, of dress, of commodity^
of fancy, of pleasure, of instruction, Sec, the habita-
tions, the use of the gardens and pleasure-grounds, all
the social pleasures and benefits imaginable, are (jratisj
to be had by every member of the community.

In like manner are the state's concerns relative to
the communities to be conducted Manv coaimunitiesj

1 10

form a state. The state has to provide for general esta-
blishments concerninp; the whole state, inasmuch as
they need not be in ever}' community. For instance*
means of rapid and easy communication, roads, large
convenient vehicles on land, and large floats, or
floating islands on sea, canals, mines, and any other
improvement for the benefit of the state, are to be the
objects of the state's government, composed of depu-
ties or representatives of the communities. All such
aff"airs, again, require no contributions of individuals ;
but the powers and means of the proposals are to be
properly applied for effecting the general state's
purposes.

Thus, whatever may be wanted for the general
welfare of the state, for the highest improvement of
men., in physical, intellectual, and moral respects, is
the affair of the state, and obtainable, if it can be
found or produced any where on the globe, without
tax- gathering, without sacrifice of any individual in
the state.

Means of protection may be in the hands of every
single state, under the direction, however, of the
whole Union, in cases of general interest.

This is the simple mode that \\ill lead directly to
the creation and full enjoyment of a paradise such as
is pointed out in the first part ; and this is accessible
to all, to tlie inhabitants of our own country, and to the
emigrants from foreign nations, without hurtful dis~
turbancc, or any violence, or loss to any individual.

Where arc such new communities and states first to
be founded ? —

Evidently, the most conveniently, in our best parts
west of the Mississippi.

in

To give II clear concoption of the proceeding (osvards
accomplishing these purposes, from the beginning,
gradual progress, to the ultimate result of the practice
of the proposed means, 1 siuill trace a distinct image
for the consideration of reflecting men, as a natural
deduction from what has been stated.

J shall first state, how a community is to be formed
and governed, so as to produce the possible greatest
henelit for every individual; and next to this, the
formation of the state, and general government.

The beginning and progress of the new state of
things may be divided into jieriods : each subsequent
period will produce new means ; and therefore is
each period to be distinctly considered by itself. These
periods are the following : —

F^rst period. An association of an unlimited num-
ber of members is to be formed, for the purpose of
spreading the knowledge of these means throughout
the country, and inviting the attention of the public
to the subject ; proposing meetings in convenient
places, for further examination and deliberation, and
causing a subscription of small shares for the first ex-
periment, on a suftlciently large scale, so as to be of
utility. A mathematical examination of the invention
to be applied is then to be made, and all its details to
be investigated, so as to ensure success, and establish
general conviction, before any money is to be ex-
pended. After the funds to be employed are ascer-
tained, the simplest experiment is first to be made.
Cultivation of soil being the most important object,
and in the same time practicable, in certain circum-
stances, with the least expense, the first experiment

142

may be confined to it. For this purpose, the most
convenient spot is to be selected, so as to subject it
to the possible least expenses. A piece of level
ground, witliout requiring a purchase for this pur-
pose, of 100 acres at least, or of several hundred
acres, somewhere near the Atlantic coast, is eligible.
There the proper arrangements are to be made, under
the direction of a commission, cliosen by the majority
of the association, by ballots ; with sufficient security
for any money or other valuable property to be trusted
into their hands., and provided with well-deiined in-
struction.

The result of the progress of this first experiment is
to be published throughout the association in fixed
periods, so as to afford perfect knowledge of it to every
member. This may be done by printed reports. After
this experiment has realized the expectations, it is to
be published in America and Europe.

Second period. Arrangements are then to be made
to extend the application of the proposed means. And
though it be confined at first to mere cultivation of
soil, the same means being adapted for all works of
excavating or elevating earth, it will be in the power
of the association to make contracts with the govern-
ment of the United States, highly advantageous both
to the nation and association, for general improve-
ments of various kinds. The payment for them may
be taken chiefly in lands of Congress, at the usual
rate. Patents for the new inventions to be applied
may be obtained for the association, in order to pre-
vent private speculators from using the new means
to the prejudice of the labouring class of the people.

143

This protection of the association being no more than
what the constitution and laws of the United States
grant for new inventions and discoveries, intended
for the benefit of the community at large, there is
no reason to apprehend a refusal of this lawful pro-
tection ; on condition, however, that any individual is
accessible to the association, by paying a share, which
may be done in cash, or in work for the purpose of the
association ; so that even the poorest may have access
to the enjoyment of the full benefit of the new means,
whenever he choses. The work to be done for the
association consists in constructing the first machine-
ries, the first moulds for moulding, in transporting
materials and men, and finally in superintending es-
tablished machineries, as mentioned.

After the first experiment is made, the means for
extending the application of the new inventions will
rapidly increase ; for the moderate shares to be paid,
and the certainty of great gain, will induce the people
to join the association.

It will then soon become a matter of necessity to
make great avnangements for extensive new settle-
ments by means of the new inventions. While the
association may thus acquire large tracts of unculti-
vated land in the west by contracts with Congress, for
forming new settlements, it may, in the same time,
make contracts with owners of land in the eastern
states for the application of the new means, increasing
thereby their body and collective wealth.

The contracts with the landowners are to be made
in such a manner, that many farms adjoining each
other are cultivated by one single establishment under

144

the supcriiUoiulence of a few individuals, engaged by
the association ; so that many thousand acres are to be
transformed into the linest gardens imaginable, and
yielding, consequently, far richer crops on the same
area than hitherto was possible. The compensation for
such culture and preparation of produces for food and
use to be made by the owner of the ground, is to be
a certain stipulated share of the produces.

Thus the farmer will see his farm changed into the
finest garden, with produces ten times as great and as
valuable as he could derive hitherto therefrom ; he
will have a store of produces, for his own use and for
sale, without trouble, without expense. He may then
spend his time in the manner he pleases: no work, no
hiring of labourers, nor feeding of horses or oxen for
work, is any more required of him. Dwellings and
store-houses are to be built for him by the new means.
The surplus of his produces may be transported over
land and sea by new means of transport, through the
agency of the association.

The association will have an affluence of real wealth
in this way, that will soon enable it to accomplish the
greatest purposes imaginable, by the new means. An
immense surplus of necessaries and comforts of life
will be created thereby for the association and single
farmers, which is to be exported on floating islands,
to supply whole nations in all quarters of the globe
with them, in exchange for produces of their own.

Wealth begets wealth ; and it will thus soon be-
come so superabundant, that all avarice, or fear of
want, will cease, and all real wants of human life will
be so cheap, or so free, as air and water is now. All

145

this will be tlius effected witliout any hurtful conse-
quence or violent revolution. The most stupid and
most inveterate prejudices, and blind adherence to
customs, will see themselves defeated without combat ;
the change will gradually be from good to better. The
poor class, the mechanic, and all others depending
now on their labour, will sec the plain road to the in-
crease of their happiness without trouble. They have
only to pay a small share in money or work, and then
be members of the association, and sharers in all the
benefits resulting from the application of the new
means. They may emigrate to the west of our coun-
try, if they choose ; and enjoy, after a period of two to
five years, a paradise without labour. The wealthy
may take at once a large share in the application of
the new means, and satisfy his desires for wealth to
their utmost.

The contracts with Congress may be made in the
following way, for deriving from the new means the
greatest benefits for both parties.

The association may select lands wherever they
choose beyond the Mississippi, among Congress lands,
within a certain period, say within ten years, which is
then to be their property, provided they pay a certain
price, stipulated by Congress, within the same time.
The payment may be made by preparing a certain
tract of land for Congress ; for example, one-fourth of
the land so bought by the association for the recep-
tion of new settlers; such land, with all the improve-
ments the new means afford thereon, is to be the pro-
perty of the Congress : these improvements will chiefly
consist in the finest gardens, edifices of the described

o

146

kind, &c. ; or an equivalent may be effected, by
making rail-roads of a superior kind, for large loco-
motive engines, large floats with engines for transport
on sea, canals, draining swamps,, making dams along
rivers, or other improvements or establishments for the
general benefit of the nation.

Thus the nation will have acquired, in less than ten
years, improvements which could not have been ef-
fected in 10,000 years with all the money in the
world. For there will be level roads, consisting of
large tables, many feet thick, and hard as flint, in
every direction, from one extremity of the United
States to the other, with vehicles for transporting
many thousand tons at once, and travelling 1000
miles per day ; to cross the ocean, at the same rate, on
beautiful floating islands, with perfect security and in
all imaginable enjoyments and comforts. The im-
mense wildernesses beyond the Mississippi will be
changed into gardens with produces of incalculable
value, and filled with establishments for producing
things in far greater quantity and of greater value
than all the world can produce now : and all such
improvements will be at the disposal of the govern-
ment.

The increase of the funds and members of the
association are to be applied to increase the settle-
ments.

Third period. It will then be time to make proper
arrangements for settling the territories beyond the
Mississippi in the most beneficial mode.

It is evident, from what has been stated of the new
means, that the inhabitants of the new country need

147

not to dwell in separate houses by families, as hitherto
has been the case. The half of the advantages of the
new means would thus be lost, besides the induce-
ments to a more refined social life.

Although it is not necessary that the new means be
applied in their full extent at once, yet preparations
ought to be made, so that they can come to full
application as soon as desired, or as practicable. When
I say here practicable^ it is not to be understood with
respect to the means themselves, for these are practi-
cable at the beginning as well as at any later time ;
but the expression is made in regard to the prejudices
of men. I am aware, as well as any person in the
uorld can be, that prejudices are the great stumbling-
block, which by far the majority of men cannot get
over, except, perhaps, gradually by length of time.
The most evident truths cannot find easily access into
the mind where prejudices of customs are lodged;
for to substitute old errors by new truths requires re-
flection, and believing in old notions is more commo-
dious to weak or lazy minds. Therefore, I am willing
to be accommodating, as much as it be in any way
compatible with the ultimate attainment of the great
purposes in view, that is, to aff'ord as much happiness
to men as possible. I hope I shall have accommo-
dated the proposals to the most common notions, in
beginning with the simplest contrivance.

The new settlements are to be laid out so as to
admit of forming communities at any time desired
These communities ought not to be smaller, nor larger,
than, for the greatest conveniences and the best pur-
poses, is stated in the first part ; that is, than a building

148

of one-sixteeutli of one square mile can contahi in
the utmost convenience, with the greatest saving of
trouble, and the greatest sum of enjoyments and plea-
sures. The number of individuals ought, therefore,
to be not less than 1000, and never more than 3000
for one community. This number might, by the
most superior culture of soil, require not nlore than
from one to three square miles of surface. But as
land is now cheap, a square of five miles, or tsventy-
five square miles, may be allowed for- every such
community, without causing too /great and inconve-
nient a distance between the first establishments. In
this way 100 communities might form a state, whose
area would then be 2500 square miles, or equal to a
square of fifty miles. Such a state might afford su-
perabundance of every thing for human happiness for
a population of 2,500,000 individuals, calculating
1000 for every square mile. And how many states
could not be formed in this way within the territory
of the United States !

The tracts along the coasts of the ocean will be
always the most advantageous, for reasons that have
been stated in the part : these reasons are; viz. —
-. 1. Because there the four different powers of wind,
tide, waves, and sun-shine, are at the disposal of the
inhabitants, and therefore so much the greater things
to be effected.

2. Because the productions of sea and land may be
enjoyed there at once.

3. Because the transport on floating islands, and
their cultivation of soil, afford peculiarly immediate
great advantages.

149

4. Because the atmosphere is there generally milder
and more saluhrious.

Hence the shores of the Pacific Ocean might be
eligible in the west at first.

These general principles are to regulate all general
cases concerning the settling of emigrants in the new
country. .

The next object is the government. Its nature is
to be far superior to what it can now be. It will no
more be a mere compulsive tax-gathering and tax-
expending power : "the well-being of the society in
general, aid of every' individual in particular, will be
no more a mere pious wish, praised in poetical songs
and declamation, but it will then be the sole business
of governing ; and the government will be no more
confined in physical means, but their intellectual
capacities will only come into question. There will be
leisure for reflection, and divesting themselves by
degrees of the remaining old narrow conceptions and
prejudices, and for maturing good regulations. The
business of governing, though of great extent, will be
very simple, every thing being regulated and provided
for in a general way. Every community takes care of
its members ; and the state's government is composed
of deputies or representatives of the communities.
There are then but two governments, — the special go-
vernment of each community, and the general govern-
ment of the state.

The government of the community may be consti-
tuted in the following manner : —

1. A committee of provisions.

2. A committee of health.

02

150

3. A committee of instruction.

4. A committee of pleasures.
6. A committee of police.

The function of each committee is equally impor-
tant, and each requires peculiar talents and disposi-
tions.

The committee of provisions is to have the manage-
ment of all husbandry, the cultivation of soil, the
gathering and the preparations of its produces for
food and use ; the kitchen department, the exchange
of surplus against things from foreign parts, and the
inspection of the stores.

The committee of health has under its cave the
medical department, the provision of all medicaments,
physicians, the removal of all things injurious to
health, excessive use of spirits, intemperance of any
hind, iilth, stagnant waters, decaying substances, bad
food, unwholesome practices, the care of meliorating
and purifying the air and water, washing, cleaning,
selecting the diet for tliose whose state of health wants
a particular care, &c.; in short, providing for every
thing that may promote health, and preventing and
discarding whatever may be injurious to health.

The committee of instruction provides for every
thing relative to education and instruction for children
and adults. They furnish all materials and teachers
for instruction, and have the superintendence of all the
business concerning the same. Libraries, laboratories,
museums, botanical gardens, schools, proper attendance
to infants and children, are objects of their function.

The committee of pleasures takes care of all matters
of amusements and enjoyments. The arrangements

151

for public pleasures, theatre, music, balls, bodily exer-
cises of diversion, all arrangements for social conver-
sation and amusements are of their resort; also the in-
spection over all the festivities and public amusements,
preventing and removing all indecencies and inter-
ruptions of public pleasures, and furnishing all requi-
site materials and persons for such purposes.

The committee of police has to watch on good order
and public security, also to guard against infractions
of regulations made for the prevention of any wrong.
It is lo be the first juridical instance in all complaints
brought before them ; it has to provide for travellers
passing through the community, and visitants ; and has
under its care every thing that concerns personal safety
against accident or malice.

Every committee is to have a president, who has to
make a report, at every certain period and extraordi-
nary occasion, to the community, in their meetings, of
all the intermediate transactions, also of all proposals
of the committees, and to receive instruction from the
community.

The community is to hold public meetings at certain
periods, for instance, every week; every adult member
is to have a vote in it at a certain age, for instance,
at eighteen years. The communal meetings are the
second instances in all controversial matters, where
the committee in its respective department is the first
instance. Majority decides in all cases, after every
member of the meeting has fully expressed his opinion.
There is no other authority in the community be-
sides these five committees, who are the special oificers
in all the individual and communal concerns.

152

Every community sends one or more deputies to
every assembly of the state, with proper instructions of
their wishes, decided by the majority of the same, to
be discussed in the general assembly. The state's as-
sembly is the last instance of appeal, which the re^
spective deputy has to bring before them.

The communication between the state's assembly
and the community is to be made through the com-
munal president to the state's president or governor.

The general assembly appoints five state's commit-
tees, in the way as every community does for the five
respective communal departments, to execute the or-
ders of the state's assembly, to be received through the
state's president, for their respective department of the
state. These five state's committees bear the same re-
lation to the state as the communal committees do to
the community.

All adult female persons may organize themselves
in the same manner, as separate councils, but depend-
ing in matters concerning both sexes on the final de-
cision of the male assemblies. Why should the female
part of men be excluded from all public councils ? —
Have they less sense, less feeling, or less interests in
the human concerns than the male sex ? — In a state of
society where only physical strength is to govern, and
mental culture is esteemed to be of inferior merit, and
where generally the female sex receives an inferior
education, and where equality of right is not under-
stood, there may be some apology for this despotism ;
but in a better enlightened and happier state, such bar-
barities will, of course, subside.

153

All authorities of the state are to be included in the
general assembly and the five state's committees.

The general assembly and the state's committees are
to have no riglit to interfere with communal concerns,
but they have to aid such arrangements by their gene-
ral functions.

The state's committee of provisions has the special
care of all the stores of provisions of the state, to sup-
ply them by general establishments, be it from the in-
land or from foreign countries ; to manage all concerns
of exchange of the communal surpluses delivered into
the general stores against the foreign articles wanted ;
to balance the mutual exchanges between different
communities of the state; to provide for means of trans-
port on land and sea, large vehicles on artificial roads,
and large floats on sea ; to establish factorships iu
foreign countries for effecting exchanges of whatever
be wanted in the state. Every community has to apply
to the state's president for any desired exchange, and
he has to correspond with the state's committee.

The state's committee of health has to provide for
every thing wanted by the communal committees of
health ; to investigate every thing that may improve
•the state of health in general ; to receive the reports
and proposals from physicians, in order to effect what
is of its function; to meliorate the climate of the country
or any part of it, wherever it can be done, as by drain-
ing swamps, confining rivers, clearing the ground from
noxious evaporations of decaying vegetables, (Sec.

The state's committee of instruction has to provide
for every thing relative to education, arts and sciences,
schools, universities, libraries, collections of instructive

• 154

things ; to teachers, their studies, examen, productions,
and effects, for the correspondence with foreign men
of learning, printing establishments, &c.

The state's committee of pleasures has to provide for
every thing wanted of the communities for such pur-
poses, for general festivities, general establishments for
forming artists of all kinds, for social amusements and
instruction, such as musicians, actors, dancers, &c.,
and all materials for innocent amusements, and to take
care that none of bad consequences be introduced.

The state's committee of police has under its care
all roads, canals, rivers, lakes, &c., the vehicles to be
used on them, the post, the telegraphical institutions,
and every thing relative to the general public order
and security, the provision for emigrants and immi-
grants, travellers in the state, all state's buildings and
establishments for the use of the staters government,
all publications and correspondence of state's transac-
tions, for newspapers, and public information of any
kind, also the special examinations of all juridical mat-
ters for report lo the general assembly.

Every state's committee is subject to the general as-
sembly, and has to give account of all their transac-
tions to the same at fixed periods, and receive their in-
structions from the same, to report of all the results of
inquiries made by them, and make their proposals on
all subjects concerning its respective department.

Every communal committee has, through its com-
munal president, to make its application to the state's
president on any subject of its respective department.

Every adult member has to give a list of the articles
wanted for his special use, at fixed periods, to the com^

155

murial president; for which articles the respective eom-
munal committees have to provide through the state's
president, provided the desired articles do not exceed
the individual's share in the gommunal stores, in which
case the list is to he returned, with instruction how
much its value is to be lowered.

Thus every individual's want of any kind may be
supplied throughout the state, without any traffic,
without money, without labour or trouble ; and all the
most excellent arrangements and establishments that
the new means afford, may be speedily made in a most
regular way, which prevents all collisions and injus-
tices.

The business of the communal and state's commit-
tees is simple, and will require but a few hours' time
every week ; for the wants are not individually, but in
a general way, supplied. The communal stores are to
be filled in consequence of the various desires of every
individual, which are to be notified at fixed periods ; for
instance, every three months, previous to the commu-
nal purchase or exchange of surplus : in consequence
of these individual lists, the communal committees
have to make their periodical reports to the respective
state's committees, through the communal and state's
president, and vice versa.

The whole business consists then only in making a
list of the articles dcvsired by every member; then in
making a list for the community out of individual
ones, and according to communal resolutions by the
communal committees ; then in making a list for the
whole state by the state's committees out of the com~
munal lists, and in conformity with the resolutions of

156

the general assembly. These individual, comnumal,
and state's lists are not oflener to be made than every
three months, but once. All this will consequently be
but a pleasant occupation, because there is no compli-
cated tedious money and book-keeping affairs. The
wants of individuals, communities, and state, are ex-
hibited at one glance, and provided for in the most
general ways. Large vehicles for carrying thousands
of tons by land and water, under the direction of two
or four men, transport the things of exchange in the
most rapid and regular way for the whole state, and
distribute the same, according to the directions of the
respective authorities of the state, among the commu-
nities, from whence they receive in return the surplus
productions for gathering and exporting them. What
now would require the attendance and industry of
many thousands and myriads of men, will thus be the
slight task of a few men.

Thus the individual, communal, and state's concerns
are regulated without opposite interests ; the strictest
justice is done to every one, not by punishments for
offences, but by preventing all disputes and supplying
all wants ; humanity and love is fostered, not by
empty words, but in deed ; the sense and taste for in-
struction and refined pleasure will be awakened and
satisfied in turns ; the intemperance of all kinds be
prevented, and finer innocent enjoyments and plea-
sures fill up the time. A paradise will be accom-
plished then in a

Fourth period.

After the state is constituted and organized, and
there is cultivated land sufficient to the wants of the

157

inhabitants, they may then avail themselves of the full
benefits to he derived from the new means.

The means of transport are then to he the first ob-
jects. Artificial roads of vitrified substance and iron
rails, with establishments and vehicles for moving
large buildings, with weights of many thousand tons
for the inland communication ; and floating islands of
trees and light stuff, that is prepared of any kind of
wood, and cast and baked in large masses, for transport
over sea, are to be made.

Next to the means of transport, one establishment,
suflicient for the whole state, for forming and vitrifying,
out of the most ]>roper materials to be found, parts of
the edifices, such as columns, pillars, entire walls,
tables, vaultings, and all other requisites for the
buildings, colonnades, walks, canals, aqueducts, ar-
chitectural ornaments, vessels, utensils, pipes, pieces
for machineries, for burning mirrors, &c., as de-
scribed in the first part, by means of burning mirrors
and moulds. These articles are to be transported to
their respective places, for to erect there the edifices as
described.

The ohjects of fancy and pleasures, of the same or
similar substance, are to be made: in short, all things
of hard, vitrified substance, as mentioned in the first
part, are then to be made in succession of the de-
mauds, so that the less necessary articles follow after
the more necessary ones.

With this establishment a foundry of iron and other
metals, by means of the same burning mirrors, may be
united ; one for the whole state is more than sufiScient,

p

158

considering the manner of its use, described in the
first part.

In onei)r two years all possible wants of that kind
of the whole state may he supplied, and the most mag-
nificent paradise be accomplished, such as is.pointed out
in the first part.

Next to this grand object, or simultaneously, an-
other establishment is to be made for making all
articles of pliable or soft stuff", for dress and soft furni-
nitures of all kinds, as mentioned in the first part. ■■

Thus there will be but one establishment in every
community for cultivating all the circumjacent land ;
and for the whole state are but two establish-
ments required for supplying all other wants for
architecture, machineries, garments, dress, ornaments,
furnitures, and every thing wanted. Besides these
establishments there is nothing more required than
the roads and vehicles for transport, which both are but
produces of the single establishment of the whole state.

All the vehicles in the whole state may consist in
but a single one ; and yet this will be sufficient for
moving any number of persons, or any freight within
the state to any or every community of the stale every
day. To understand this, an example may be here
specified for illustration.

Suppose the state to be a s- viare of fifty miles, con-
taining 100 communities, five miles distant from each
other, so as to form ten rows, each of ten communities,
the road passing through every community will then
be ten times forty-five (as the length of each row from
one centre of each communal square to the other),

159

that is, 450 miles long ; one vehicle will then have
time enough for passing through all communities, and
loading and unloading, when it may run at the rate
of forty miles per hour. It would make no difference
as to the distance, if the state were of any other figure
with the same number and distances of the communi--
ties. One vehicle being large and commodious enough
for many thousands of persons and tons at once, it is
consequently sufficient for doing all locomotive busi-
ness for the whole state.

This fourth and last period is the state of a com-
plete paradise, having all the mighty powers and
means proposed in practice.

This ultimate happy state can and will be attained
within five to ten years from that time hence when the
first union is formed for the proposed purposes.

Great are the power'^, simple the means for their
application, simple tl; proceedings, and simple the
system of society, the whole state a paradise, filled
with vast, most convenient, and most magnificent pa-
laces, and gardens, full of enjoyments, delights, plea-
sures, enrapturing sceneries, rapid communicative
and locomotive means throughout the state, without
slavery of work, without opposite interests, without
traffic, and consequently without rational cause for
enmities between man and man. None is molested,
every one may live as he please, enjoy the pleasures
for which his life is made, and exercise freely all his
mental and corporeal faculties, with a sphere of action,
more powerful, more extensive, more multifarious
than the mightiest monarch on earth was ever known
to have

160

The produce of ihc country \\\\\ rapidly increase;
the exchange of surplus may buy every thing that can
be bought in the world ; and the wealth, influence,
and power, be spread over all the globe.

New ideas, new desires, new objects of action, new
sciences and arts, infinitely superior to what is now in
existence, will arise. A new life with superior enjoy-
ments, incomparable to the present, will ensue. The
now hidden mysteries of nature will be more and more
searched after, and unveiled and applied to the im-
provement of human life. With horror and disgust
we shall then look back on our past life, on our past
ignorance, errors, superstition, poverty, helplessness,
and miseries ; and what we call now civilisation will
be stigmatized with the names of folly, barbarity, and
only be looked upon as a necessary transitory or inter-
mediate state between the helpless state of savages
and the state of perfection, of which thehuman life be
capable in this world.

When one such a state is formed, a total revolution
of mankind is then the inevitable consequence. Next
to the realization of such a state, the rest of the United
States will, of course, follow the example ; then suc-
cessively the other parts of this continent; and finally,
by degrees, the other parts of the world: for no
people on earth can, nor will, resist to the overwhelm-
ing afiiuence of all necessaries and commodities of
life.

But while this revolution is going on, the first slate,
or states, of the new system of means and society, will
have the advantage of buying and gathering all de-
sirable and saleable things of the world for them-

1()1

selves; for they can create as much surplus of their
productions as they please, and huy with all things
they want from other parts of the world.

Ameiicans I have you read what is stated here, with
allentiou and reflection ; and will you hesitate to in-
vestigate the suhject a little further?

The chance of associating is placed in every one's
power. The way of proceeding is shown from the he-
ginning to the end, step by step, for attaining all the
infinite blessings promised. And if this way should
not he found plain enough, every further explanation
required is offered.

You are now before two roads — the only two you
can possibly take — one is to examine what is offered
to you; the other, to neglect it, and leave it to other
peoples. One way is leading you to conviction, to a
paradise, to imperishable glory and power, and national
independence — the other one may lead to your na-
tional annihilation, to your eternal disgrace, to your
suljection. Tiie one is the road of intelligence ; the
other of imbecility. The one will be eagerly pursued
by men of active minds ; the other will be loitered on
by iriflers. The one is the road dictated by the spirit
of our :ige; the other by blind adherence to customs
inherited from ancient barbarity and ignorance.

If you want to choose the good and glorious road
you have to do it now, or your chance may be soon
lost for ever.

In the contrary case ther nations or governments
will use the offered nn. ..is for the dominion over you.

r2

162

It will then depend from your masters, uhal blessings,
or what curse the new means arc to hring on you.

What is stated before you, is a combination of all
what is the most valuable of the human knowledges of
our present ridvaiiced time,, and cannot be disproved.
It is a most serious appeal to the intelligent, self-re-
flecting part of all the civilized nations of the world ;
not for amusing Iriflers. The truths exposed will soon
be diffused throughout Europe, and generally acknow-
ledged, like so many other mathematical and physical
truths of late are now acknowledged, in spite of what
ignorance and old prejudices would say against them.
The truths now before you are infinitely more important
and useful than any hitherto discovered. Their conse-
quences will end in a total revolution of mankind as
soon as they are understood. Whether your nation is
to act a superior, or an inferior part, is depending on
your present choice.

Americans! it is now in your power to become
within ten years a nation to rule the world. Your
territory can contain, in all affluence imaginable, from
200 to 300 millions of human individnals, as many as
the Chinese empire contains now. It will be filled to
such a number from various parts of the world, if you
make proper arrangements for their reception, which
the new means afford. You have it in your power to
receive the most intelligent part out of all nations:
this will be your greatest conquest; for intelligence,
not mere physical wealth, is henceforth to be your
only power and glory. You may cause a migration
of nations, unparalleled in history. You may receive
them without fear ; for you will have the power on

16S

yovir side. Mighty engines are to be your future
arras by land and sea. The government of the Union
is to have the exclusive possession of them. Your
regulations may preserve all public safety.

. It might be objected that such a system of popula-
ting our country with foreign peoples at so rapid a rate,
would deprive our own increasing posterity of the
room to live in our country to their case and comfort,
that would thus perhaps be in part compelled to emi-
grate and colonize themselves somewhere else.

This appears to be a very rational objection, and
ought to be well considered ; for it is just as sound a
policy for any nation to care first for their own people
before they provide for foreigners, as it is to be for
individuals to provide for their own families in prefer-
ence to strangers, whatever humanity might say
against it.

It is true, such apprehensions may be once realised.
However, care for posterity can humanly be extended
only to a certain limit, beyond which human foresight
cannot reach. The very measures of care for a re-
mote posterity, by barring our country against emi-
gration, would keep our posterity comparatively weak ;
while other countries, especially on our continent,
would, by emigrations from over-populated Europe,
soon acquire a gigantic population and power, that
might, in the course of unforeseen events, overwhelm
our nation.

Besides this, who knows, whether a remote posterity
may not, for the greatest part, care very little for their
country, and choose, under circumstances and views
of the world very different from ours ?

164

But at all events, the world is large and productive
enough, to afford all the means for human happiness
for many generations to come of the whole human
race, so that within the next 1000 years there is no
universal over-population to be feared ; and to care
for limes beyond 1000 years would be folly in man.

The acquisitions attainable* by the proposed new
means are of so new a kind, so superior to all what is
in existence at present, they lead directly to a state of
life so vastly different from our present, and to views
of human life and the world in general so infinitely
superior to those now extant, that there is great rea-
son to fear of their not being fully understood. The
world will be quite new to men, and produce quite new
conceptions of the world and human life. The world
will no longer appear to be the abodes of misery to
man, mixed with but a small portion of imperfect
happiness. Human life will no longer be what igno-
rance will have it to be, a probationary state of
misery, torments, and affliction ; a curse, a prey
about which Satan disputes with the Creator; but a
paradise, in which man is reconciled with this present
state of life, where his feelings and desires are in
harmony with nature, with the universe, of which
man sees himself and his whole race a part, and not
in perpetual conflict with it, and with his fellow-man.
Let his expectations about a future state after his
deatli be whatever they may, he will see there is no
reason to exclude him from the full enjoyments of his
life in this present world, for which his nature is made.

And he will easily conceive that a life of happiness
and harmony with his fellow-men ; a life in which he
fulfils the destiny of his nature, can make him hetter
prepared for a paradise hereafter, than a life of torment
and hell.

A comparative view of the common life at present
and of that altainahle hy the new means will show the
contrast between both more plainly.

166

I. IN PHYSICAL RESPECTS :

»4t present :

Man hc'is to pay for every thing he wants for his life,
comfort, or pleasure ; because every thing he wants is
the product of human labour. So if he has nothing to
pay with, the world, with all its delights for man, is a
strange place to him, of which he has no part.

The world is a penitentiary to man, in which he is
condemned to work for life.

Man is a poor, helpless, trifling being, with all his
drudgery; for he spends his whole life in handling
some little tool or other ten thousand times, ever again
and again in the same way, until his death, for pro-
ducing some little things, for little use, or none at all.

Man lives in a very narrow world ; for it is gene-
rally not much larger to him than his workshop or field :
the rest of the world is very little or nothing to him,
except what he can buy with his money out of it.

I«7

By the new means :

Man is at liberty to enjoy whatever the world pro-
duces for human life; there is no labour, no pay, but
superabundance of every thing that is good for man.
He sees there the whole world as his property and
friendly home.

The \\orld is a paradise to man, free of all labours,
full of endless delights and pleasures.

Man is powerful like a god ; at his command he
may change the face of the world ; he is lord of the
gigantic powers of nature, by which he may produce,
without labour, in one year, more than before could be
done in ten thousand years. He has objects of activity
of a never-ending variety, and of ten thousand times
greater importance and utility than before.

INIan lives continually with thousands of his fellow-
men together, in all enjoyments of life ; he roves
about among an endless variety of amusing, delight-
ing, and instructive objects; in his brilliant, beautiful
palace ; in his magnificent gardens ; in foreign places,
countries, and quarters of the globe; in all climates ;
in beautiful paradisaical floating islands ; he may see
every other day a new country ; he may be to-day in
America, to-morrow in the West Indies, the next
week in Europe, or Africa, or Asia, or in some island
of the Pacific Ocean ; receive and impart every day
some new intelligence. He sees the world million times
greater and more beautiful than it was before to him;
every where he is at home, among friends; no pay is
asked, no charge is made; he is a welcome guest
everywhere; for he deprives nobody of any thing for

168

At present :

The world is a very indiflferent place to him; for,
except what he can eat, drink, or use — and that costs
mohey, and is rather scarce, it is to him but a mass of
dirt, with some vermins and weeds on it.

Man is taught, and he feels the truth of it, that
this world is a vale of misery, which is to give him a
foretaste of hell ; to save himself from it, he has to
suffer a great deal in the present wicked world.

If man had equal chances with brutes for life, he
would attain a proportionate older age. Quadrupeds
live generally six or seven times as long as their time
of full maturity is, before they become decrepid. Man
would have to live, accordingly, in an average, six or
seven times eighteen to twenty-four years, thats, 1 10 to
170 years. The patriarchs, it seems, lived to such an
age generally. Among those savage peoples which
are not refrained from obeying the impulses of their
nature, the sextuple period of their maturity, and up-
wards, seems to be no extraordinary age. Among us,
man hardly attains half that age. It is most rational
to inquire into the causes of this unnatural general
abbreviation of human life ; they are, perhaps, not
so very occult as might be imagined; and may be

169

By the new means :

his enjoymenl or use, as there is superabundance of
every thing- ; but the guest can only be interesting
for what he has to communicate or to exhibit. Novelty
can never get exhausted as long as he lives.

Man sees there the whole world full of varying
sceneries, to his delight and substantial benefit ; for
land and water, wherever he treads, is covered with
useful and beautiful growth of vegetables, and arti-
ficial objects ; all arranged in beautiful symmetry,
and prospects, to the delight of the eye, taste, feeling,
smell, and fancy, in endless variety.

Man sees the world to be a paradise, and may get a
foretaste of heaven in it, and so much the better pre-
pared for another paradise hereafter; for nothing will
impel there him to forfeit it.

If man, by equal chances with brutes for life, may
live to an age of 110 to 170 years, how much may
his life still further be prolonged by superior chances
for life !

Let us take a glance of the improvements to be
made by the proposed means.

There is no cause for compelling man to live worse
than brutes, for doing any thing against his inclina-
tion, or living in more dirt and impurities than brutes.

He has not only equal chances for life, in every
respect, with brutes ; but all are superior to those of
any brute's life.

The food is most cautiously, as far as science teaches,
to be selected, prepared, and purified, before it comes
to his enjoyment. His beverage, water, or any liquor,

Q

m

At present :

discovered without great learning, and then be found
remediable.

The chances for life, in which man stands yet equal
with the brutes, are these : —

Man satisfies the cravings of his appetites pretty
nearly as well, or as ill, as the brutes do. He imbibes
air and water, such as nature or chance present to him,
with all the accidental impurities and admixtures of
stufis injurious to health and life, as brutes do: he
never knows how to purify them, nor cares for it, nor
would his poor circumstances allow him to do any such
thing that requires some combination of means arid
situation. He swallows a good deal of impurities into
his stomach, from whence many injurious parts of his
food are carried into his blood, &c. He swallows a
great quantity of still more injurious stuffs, invisibly
with his breathing air, into his lungs ; from thence they
are carried immediately into the innermost recesses of
his vitality throughout his body, by ti'ansformation into
blood, &c. He imbibes the same through billions of
pores, with which the exterior of his body is perforated.
He swallows a great deal of dust. So far man shares
the ignorance, helplessness, and the fate of the brutes.

It maybe objected, that we have physicians to apply
to in case of sickness; and so we may, if we need
not to be afraid of large bills, nauseous stuifs, &c.;
but experiences teach, that among peoples who have
no physicians, diseases, bad health, and mortality are
at least not more frequent than among those who are
amply provided with physicians. Still the patients

171

' By the new means :

is also raost cautiously to be selected, prepared, and
purified for him : water, &c. is filtrated or distilled, so
that all admixture of any injurious stuff is made im-
possible. The air he inhales is not the common at-
mospheric air, with all its injurious admixtures, but
chemically purified and improved by wholesome in-
vigorating admixtures, throughout his stupendous pa-
laces ; and this might be effected, even in the open
atmosphere, by peculiar contrivances. The tempera-
ture is always such as agrees best with his feeling and
constitution. He is never exposed to any unwhole-
some moisture, cold, or disagreeable heat and trans-
piration. His clothes are of a make so as to obstruct
never in any way his perspiration and absorption of
his skin. He never swallows dust, because there is
none, neither within his palace, nor in the walks,
&c., of the surrounding gardens, being both of vitri-
fied substances, and guarded against dust from with-
out by proper contrivances, and no filth being ever
brought in or tolerated there. He never inhales the
impurities, exhaled out of the lungs of men or ani-
mals, they being absorbed, by adapted contrivances
of substances, by their chemical affinition. His trans-
piration is never kept between his skin and clothes ;
but the change and cleaning of clothes may be done
hourly without trouble ; they are there more objects
of ornament than of necessaries. He may bathe
himself at any moment in cold or warm water, in
steam, or in some other invigorating and cleaning
liquors, without trouble.

172

■ :At present .•

cannot do without physicians, and ihe physicians not
without patients : all this is very natural in our pre-
sent slate of means and society. But what is lacking,
is a far greater extent of means for multiplying expe-
riments and ohservations, and enlarging the study of
nature, a general diffusion of knowledges of their
results, so as to enable every one to be his own physi-
cian in the best way, a situation, preventative against
bad health. All this is unfeasible in the present state
of general poverty and opposite individual interests,
though most essential to life and health.

The chances for life, in which man fares a great
deal worse than brutes, are these : —

He has to work, when he would fain 'rest. He has

to watch, when he would fain sleep. He has to sit or

stand still, when he would like to move about. He

has to over-exert himself against his utmost desire.

He has a great many bad habits, injurious to health,

such as intemperance, in consequence of preceding

wants or over-excited desires, grown into habits at

length, in eating and drinking, unchastity, Sec. He

has to expose himself to wet, heat, and cold, while

brutes will take shelter. He is confined to rooms or

to workshops, where he has to inhale the bad smells

and unwholesome effluvia of stuffs he is working at,

and of men and beasts, which they transpire and

exhale out of their lungs. He wears clothes, which,

though they protect him but poorly against heat and

wet, obstruct his transpiration, and the absorption of

gas, necessary to his life, through the pores, which

173

By the new means :

Physicians may be had without pay: every adult
will be a physician, with more physical knowledges
than any physician could have acquired hitherto. The
remedies will there consist more in preventative cir-
cumstances in diet, in making the best arrangements
of all what affects and surround man, than in mere
swallowing some nauseous stuff after the disease has
taken place. Such are to be the chief objects of study
and observation, not of a particular class of a few in-
dividuals, but of erery human being througli life, in
union with all his fellow-creatures.

So man will no more be as ignorant as brutes in
things that concern his health and life, but as much
superior in knowledges as his intellect is to theirs.

The necessary consequences are, that man enjoys
there constantly a vigorous health, with the bloom of
youth and prime of life at an age, when now man is
decrepid, and tottering towards his grave.

Man is then from his infancy, and already in the
womb, formed with a vigorous constitution and happy
disposition for a long and happy life.

That human life can be prolonged by known phy-
sical means, is no matter of doubt to any man who
ever troubled himself with thinking about it. But
to point out the limit of prolongation, is not for our
age yet.

The truly useful sciences, the knowledges of nature,
are yet in their infancy ; they have gained general
credit only since the last century ; but what little is there
q2

174

At present .-

keep always more or less disai^reeable smell of injuri-
ous dirt between his clothes and skin. The micros-
cope shows, that the skin is perforated with billions
of pores, as outlets or inlets of his body ; that these
pores are continually ejecting watery liquors, like
fountains ; and that these pores or canals are con-
tracted or widened according as the surrounding tern -
perature is cooler or warmer ; observations teach, that
they absorb from the next atmosphere, and that the
whole state of vital functions is chiefly depending from
these operations. He is too frequently bound to tillhy
lodgings for years. His clothes are generally of a
fashion, that they keep some parts of the body warm,
while they leave others uncovered, which but serves to
increase the sensibility and evil consequences : the
clothes keep him warm in the dry stale, but keep him
wet in rain and great perspirations, and cause thereby
violent obstructions of the operations of his pores, that
are necessary to health and life, till they cause fevers,
rheumatism, or other diseases, which often enough end
in premature death.

The brutes are exempt from such evils, except the
domestic ones, which man has enslaved like himself.

There are yet other causes to shorten the human
life, to \^hich the brutes are not subject. JVian is kept
in troubles and cares, in anxiety, in imaginary fears,
in angry passions or grief, from infancy to old age.
He has to exert his mind against his will, in learning
many things, that necessity or customs peremptorily

175

By the new means :

discovered of them is already enough for effecting
what is stated.

There is no cause for intemperance of any kind ;
for taere is never any over-excitement for it, the sa-
tisfaction of appetites being never opposed or ob-
structed, and whatever may injure health being re-
moved, so that there be no temptation for mischievous
enjoyments.

There is no cause nor object of fear and quarrels,
no onipulsion to any disagreeable occupation and si-
tuation, no oppressive cares, nor disgusting mental
exertions to mean and litlle purposes. Man may live,
move, play, rest, eat, drink, bathc,sleep, study, observe
and do v\hatever he please, except what is hurtful.

That serenity of mind, happy temper, is the result

176

At present:

claim of him. His sensibility is thereby often over-
excited, or his mind and feelings oppressed : the state
of the vital functions is intimately connected with the
mental operations ; the feelings, and, in consequence,
life and health, are affected thereby. Who knows
not, that fear, fright, anger, grief, disappointments in
love, &c., may cause fevers, and other diseases, and
death, or premature old age ; in children, obstruction
in their growth and development of their nature, &c. ?
The brutes are subject to some of these evils, but in a
very inferior degree, and, to many others of them, not
at all.

Man is superior to brutes in chances for life in no
respect. For — whatever he may boast of his superi-
ority in knowledges and understanding — he knows ge-
nerally but very little of his own nature, and nature in
general, that may be useful for preservation of health
and life. What we call, among us, sciences and arts,
is generally but for amusement, for vain show, or for
getting money from our fellow-man, the paramount
object of all human endeavours iu our present state of
general ignorance and trivialness. We amuse and are
amused with imaginary notions; grasp after shadows,
and lose sight of what really could be useful for hu-
man life. For what avail all our speculations, all
k nowledges of useless or imaginary things, all posses-
sions of money and relative wealth, if they Ciinnotsave
us from suffering, sickne5^F, melancholy, or anger, and
premature death

» 177

By the new means :

of good health, of pleasant objects that affect the
mind and feelings, aannot be denied, unless defying
every day's experiences.

A combination of all the stated means must then
produce a condition of men so much superior to the
present of any man on earth, that our language wants
words to describe, or to give some faint idea of it : it is
but by reflection on the means presented, that the
new sphere of life may b© conceived.

-.^

178

At present :

Nearly one-half of men die in their infancy and
childhood, and hardly one-tenth attain the age of fifty
years, of which nearly all have then lost the prime of
life.

The inherent affection of man for his family and
friends causes the greatest distress to him. For he
never is able to make them as happy as he would w ish
to see them ; but feels only multiplied his own suffer-
ings by the suflferings of the objects of his love and
affection. This faculty of man, so essential for his
happiness and the preservation of his species, is gene-
rally a continualsource of cares, grief, and vexations
to him.

Conjugal love is lessened and destroyed at last, by
disappointments, reciprocal claims and inability to sa-
tisfy them, avarice or dissipations on one or the other
side, or other different propensities and desires in eco-
nomical respects, vexations, disagreeable temper, neg-
ligence of personal appearance, want, cares, perplex-
ities, disagreeable situation, weariness of each other
by being compelled to live constantly together under
various disagreeable circumstances and impressions.
Matrimony is often but a partnership for pecuniary
self-interest, where love has little or no share in it
from the beginning. How many indifferent or unfor-
tunate matrimonies are not to be found ? Not one-
tenth proves to be happy. Yet the love of the sexes
is the strongest passion, and destined for the greatest
happiness.

179

By the neio means :

By the systematical arrangements, as pointed out,
very few men will die a premature death ; and the
prime of life will have generally a far greater extent
than fifty years.

Affection and love are fostered and heightened.
They are the source of the greatest happiness of life.
They are of the happiest effects upon the human cha-
racter and social life, without producing any of the
evil consequences now existing. The hostile feelings
will be suppressed, and make room for sympathy with
all fellow-creatures. Man's enjoyments and pleasures
are multiplied by those of the objects of his affection
and love.

Conjugal love is there the natural impulse. No
pecuniary interest opposes nor prostitutes there the
love. No compulsion is there to live and have inter-
course together against their inclination. Nothing
but love is left for cause to visit and to admit each
other, every male and female adult having an apart-
ment by itself. Most elegantly and brilliantly
dressed and lodged, in the bloom of health, with a
cheerful temper, without cares or troubles, living in
the utmost cleanliness, surrounded but by pleasant
objects, no disgust is ever occasioned, and love is
ever new aud pure. Independent in their respec-
tive situations, no dispute, or disorder, or despotism,
can ensue. They come together but for pleasant con-
versation and mutual pleasure. Decency, fine be-
haviour, self-respect, need not there to be recom-
mended— they are a matter of course ; because every

180
At present

Father and mother will do every thing in their power
to make their offspring happy. They would sacrifice
even their lives to save that of their children. They
drudge and toil, not so much for their own benefit
as for that of their children. They grieve at their
sufferings, hut too often in vain. They see them ripen
to maturity, towards a life of disgrace, of poverty, of
slavery, of drudgery and perils, of ignorance, &c. ;
hut they cannot help it, or are not aware of it : they
would die of grief, did they know the future misery
of their beloved children ; hut the glimmering of de-
lusive, flattering hopes, always for the best, cheers
their minds only till sad disappointment. I every
man's fate was faithfully recorded, what melancholy
aspect of human life in general would we then have ?
Out of one hundred human lives not one would ex-
hibit some cheerful picture. Every one may ask the
histories of his own family and acquaintances, and
see what heart-rending scenes, and mournings, and
sufferings stept into the places of fond hopes. Poverty,
want, fear of want, and their consequence, self-inter-
est, stifle or diminish too frequently the affection even
between parents and children.

Parents have to train up their children in dirt and
rags, to toil and hardships, to sufferings and woes, and
foresee them in part. Their children, in return for
their affection, grow cold and indifferent towards them.
They grow up in bad habits, sour, angry, and malig

181

By the new means :

tiling" that disg-usts, gives no pleasure ; and no plea-
sure, no intercourse.

The children grow np without trouble in all the in-
nocence, intelligence, cheerful and playful temper,
natural to their age, with blooming health and coun-
tenance, most cleanly and beautifully dressed, and ex-
hibiting thus to the eyes of their parents the lovely
attributes of angels. This is no more than what the
arrangements stated warrant.

Whatever is to be known of man, children may have
learned at the age of eight to ten years, by mere be-
holding, handling,- and examining the things exhi-
bited to them in the palace and gardens, just with no
more trouble, neither to the teacher nor to the chil-
dren, than they learn now their mother-tongue.

Thus will love of the sexes and of parents be made
a perpetual source of the greatest happiness, as it is
destined to be.

182

^t present :

nant -dispositions, in consequence of their situation,
and compulsory exertions against their inclination.

Thus the human mind, for want of agreeable ob-
jects about him, in consequence of an indifferent and
miserable life, becomes peevish, angry, dissatisfied,
malignant, quarrelsome, &c. These dispositions are
not lessened by his intercourse with his fellow-men out
of his family. Whoever has to deal with him, seeks
his disadvantage, to gain by it: for the gain of one
man must always be the loss of others. Man sees thus
in his fellow-man a natural and necessary enemy to
him. He is cheated and deceived by false appear-
ances, and endeavours to cheat and deceive in his
turn. He knows it is but fear that keeps his fellow-
man from robbing him.

The poorer man is, the more he is neglected and
slighted, as a being of little use or worth. The richer
man is, the more he has to watch his possessions
against cheat and robbery.

183

By the new means

Friendship and socialness are not stifled by sordid
avarice and covetousness. No mean self-interest is
there the spring of human intercourse. There is no
cause for quarrels and malignant dispositions, or vexa-
tion. The persons who please are courted ; those who
do not please, are not sought for society. Every one
may partake of any social pleasure, without interfer-
ing with that of any other person. Desire for pleasant
intercourse is there the only motive that attracts man
to man ; and without this desire there is no occasion
for intrusion.

Men are all equally rich, and independent from
each other ; for every one shares in all what he sees
to superabundance. They are worth to each other
as much as they give pleasure to each other by their
dispositions and talents.

184

2. IN MORAL RESPECTS.
At present .-

If morality is to have any utility and defined mean-
ing, it must be justice and benevolence towards our
fellow-men; without them the social state is worse
than dreary solitude. For what is society good for,
if it has not these ingredients ? — To live among an
aggregate of enemies or indifferent men, is the greatest
misery of life.

There is but one criterion of justice and benevo-
lence ; this is, to do to others as we wish to be done
to by others. This appeal to our feelings and desires
is ea silyunderstood by every one ; but how is it with
the practice ? — Why, every one delights the most when
he buys as cheap as possible, if possible for nothing
at all, and to sell as dear as possible, if possible, no-
thing at all, without caring about what his fellow -man
may suffer by it.

The reason why man acts so against his fellow-man
is again plain enough to every one ; it is because
every one acts so against him ; because this is the
easiest way to get through the difficulties of living,
because none has ever enough for himself and his
family ; and because he cannot get any thing for his
living or pleasure, except by his labour, or by the la-
bour of his fellow-men.

That every one claims such a beneficial morality
from others is natural ; and that none does practise
it is again natural.

185

By the new means :

Man has there nothing to give to, and nothing to
take from his fellow-man, except love and pleasure,
and this will require neither labour nor money, nor
any sacrifice. To give and to receive love and plea"
sure, without sacrifice, is the finest pleasure of life,
and need not to he taught by speeches ; but inherent
feelings are far more powerful agents than all teachers
and preachers in the world. All objects around man
are agreeable, and cause by the impressions but agree-
able feelings. No fear of want, nor of man, no object
of fraud and deception, no traffic, no buying and
selling, no opposite interest, no distinction of poor and
rich, or of high and low, is there. Man has every
thing he wants, or knows to exist in the world, with-
out trouble, in superabundance, and secured for life.
So there can be no grudge. So the happiness of one
interferes there not with the happiness of others.

R 2

186

At present :

The wealthy lives upon the misery of the poor. The
fortune of one is always to be built upon the losses and
miseries of others.

The more wealth, the more means for happiness
man thinks to possess. But as he cannot get wealth,
except from his fellow-man, there is no satisfaction for
him, except they become poor, while he gets rich ; but
as wealth without servants would do him but little
good, they must needs be his servants or slaves too.
He would fain wish the rich would leave this world,
and leave him heir to their possessions. But as still
there would be no limit in his desires, as he could
never think himself quite secure against the rapacious
desires of others against him, the greatest satisfaction
in the world could only be for him, if some universal
mortality of wars, pestilence, famine, &c., would
depopulate the world, and leave him and his family
sole heirs to all the wealth in the world.

Is this, perhaps, an exaggeration ? — Ask the history
of our times, of the most civilized nations, of our own
continent. By the unsatiable desire for wealth, the
innocent inhabitants of one continent were exteimi-
nated, and the same populated again with slaves from
another continent, for work; yet there was never a
want of teachers and preachers of morality and reli-
gion. Do we act now on better principles? — Are our
desires and endeavours for wealth more moderate ? —
Was there ever a man known whose desire for more
wealth and power was at a stop ? The causes of this
unsatiable desire and feelings of every one in opposi-

187

By the new means :

Man sees there the world is large enough, and rich
enough, to afford superabundance of all things de-
sirable for human life, for himself and all his fellow-
men, for the present generation, and for many gene-
rations to come. He sees there, that nothing but
ignorance kept man hitherto in misery, and in conflict
t\ith his fellow-man and with nature ; that it is but
the height of barbarous ignorance, to think that man
must kill, rob, cheat, and oppress his fellow-man, for
want of means to live happy in this world. His long-
ing after happiness is there not in vain, and his satis-
faction not derived from the sufferings of his fellow-
man, whose happiness is essential to his own. His
feelings are in harmony with those of his fellow-man,
because his desires and interests are in union, and not
in opposition, with those of others. His morality is
in union with his interest and actual happiness. His
natural desire is, there, to live in peace and har-
mony with his fellow-men. For it is there, not man's
possessions of things, but man's social virtues and
talents, that may be sought after.

188

At present :

tion to those of others exist as they ever have existed,
and in consequence the evils also.

Man fears his fellow-man more than a beast of
prey. Hence laws and institutions to restrain him.
But these compulsive means seem to him not suffi-
cient yet. He calls the hopes and fears of religion
to his aid, and pays willingly his share for teaching
doctrines to his fellow-men, that may keep them still
more in awe against doing him wrong. But again
man finds his fellow-men act the hypocrites, like
himself, pay also their shares to the same purpose,
profess one thing and do another, act altogether
contrary to their professed doctrines, and are as cun-
ning as himself. He gets highly alarmed, and wishes
to keep, at least, religious fears and hopes, for the
sake of his own security, in credit as long as possible.
So we have many elaborate speeches of morality and
religion, and they are often well paid too. Is any
man so ignorant or so simple as not to know, that all
the fine moral speeches do not affect the actions of
man? — Man cheats and deceives his fellow-man,
where he dares not rob him, and is deceived and
cheated in his turn. What we call honesty, is
generally but a prudent conduct, to gain belief in
one's words.

Mean self-interest, poverty, fear of poverty, and of
all its appending miseries, destroys aff'ection, and sa-
crifices it to money. Parents and children, sisters
and brothers, and friends, quarrel and prosecute
each other to ruin, when their self-interest, their

189

By the new means

Man sees in his fellow-man a helpmate for social
pleasures ; there is no object of fear, nor cheat, be-
tween man and man. So there is no occasion for
hiring men to teach others what they ought to do
against their actual interest. All causes for enmities
are annihilated, by the annihilation of opposite in-
terests. There is no cause of crimes. A man of a
sound mind can have no wish to hurt his fellow-
creature, when it cannot do him any good; and if
somebody should show then still some malignant dis-
position, in spite of all delights and friendly society,
he must be insane ; and as such cases can be but sel-
dom, they may be treated as diseases ; man will sym-
pathise with the less fortunate, and not make it his
business to increase the sufferings of the unfortunate.

Affection and love exercise their blissful influence
on life without any hindrance. Friendship, affection,
love, come never in opposition with self-interest.
Accumulation of individual property would be there
as ridiculous as accumulation of water now. Love

190

At presents

want, or fear of want, come into collision. The ob-
ject of love is prostituted, forsaken for money, and
rendered miserable for life. As every thing, out of
want or fear of want, becomes venal, it becomes also
an object of cheat and deception. So love is feigned
and sold for money. He, or she, who marries more
for the possession of things, than for the love of the
person, prostitutes love, cheats his or her partner out
of the greatest happiness for life, and is cheated so
in turn. Those who would love and make each other
happy, cannot or dare not marry each other, for want
or fear of want ; and those who cannot love each
other, have to unite themselves for life. How few
happy matrimonies are to be found is known. All
the miseries of matrimonies and prostitutions, are the
consequences of poverty and its appending labour
and sufferings, and fear of poverty. Poverty is con-
sidered as the greatest misfortune, for the poor is
neglected and slighted ; he is but tantalized by the
exhibition of wealth, enjoyments, and pleasures of
others, and he knows the good things of this world
are not for him, but only the labours, thorns, and
thistles of it.

Want, and fear of want, chills all fellow-feelings,
all sense of justice and benevolence. We see this
best where man is free to act, in war. Man kills and
cripples his fellow-man for sport or glory, with the
same indifference as he would do with a deer or a
dog, and is treated so in return, without caring for
right or reason.

This is about the eflfective amount of morality.

191

By the new means :

cannot there be venal and prostituted ; but love is
only given out of love and for love, as nature dictates
for the happiness of man. No depotism, no misery
is there the consequence of this passion, so sweet, so
self-sacrificing, and so necessary to life. There is no
cause for compulsion or violent restraint against na-
ture. Every adult male or female person lives inde-
pendent, in a separate apartment ; and — no love, no
intercourse — respect and love are there the only wea-
pons to gain love. Love is there not soiled by drud-
gery and cares, and fears and disgust. Only the
pleasures of tender love in matrimony may be fully
enjoyed, without its disagreements, now so common.
Love is then, what it ought to be, a source of the
greatest happiness.

Parents need not to compel their children to do any
thing against their inclination. A system of education
may and will be introduced, to] prevent bad customs,
and to cultivate good amiable feelings. Children will
see themselves only among tender friends, and never
under masters or sour-tempered monitors. So they
will love their parents and guides by natural impulse.

Peace and harmony, and but friendly intercourse
will be among individuals and nations ; for every
people, as well as every individual, will have more
means for enjoying life than they want. The more
intelligent nation will have means to keep the less
intelligent peoples in awe. On both sides they will
find it their advantage to keep peace and friendly
intercourse.

192

3. IN INTELLECTUAL RESPECTS.

At present :

Whatever man knows, he had to learn either by his
own observations, or by instructions from others.

If man knew no more than what he had learned by
his own observations in nature, he would know not
one-thousandth part of what he knows. But he
derives his ideas, language, and arts, from the ex-
periences and practices of many millions of his con-
temporary fellow-beings, and of many antecedent
generations of times immemorial.

Men have now a very unequal chance for learning.
One may rove in all the historical and scientifical
knowledges all over the world, and pass his life in
study of books, and records of all known ages, and
of nature, while his neighbour has no more chance
for learning any thing of what is beyond his horizon,
than a brute.

The mere knowing, however, makes not happy, as
little as the mere possession of wealth ; but both are
but means, of which only a wise application may in-
crease happiness

Wealth of intellect is, however, far more valuable
than physical wealth or money ; and wealth of intel-
lect may procure physical wealth, but all the money
in the world cannot procure intellectual wealth : the
latter requires time, favourable circumstances, and
study. Besides, a man of intellectual wealth may
live happy without physical wealth ; while a man of

193
By the new means .

VVhatevev man learns there, lie learns by Ins own
observations; the objects of human knowledges being
placed before him, so that he cannot be deceived.

The instructions of others are to be documented by
visible things. So there can be no delusion. The
safe criterion of truth is always ocular demonstration
by analogy: this again requires comparisons; and (he
more knowledges of things, the more extensive com-
parisons can be made, and the more truths ascertained.

Men have tliere an equal chance for learning. They
^vill learn there in one year more than the most learned
could learn in all his life. And there will be as much
difference between the intellect of man in the new stale
and that of the present, as there is now between the
most learned and the most ignorant.

Tlie knowledges are made beneficial to the highest
possible degree for every human being at once.

It is by this increase of intellectual wealth, by its
equal distribution among all members of the human
family, that peace and good-will among all, and
general happiness is chiefly effected. Man's own
self-satisfaction, a never-failing source of the fines'
pleasures and delights, and highly useful instruction
is produced by an inliuite intellectual wealth. This

s

194

At present :

physical wealth and intellectual poverty, will gene-
rally enjoy a very inferior degree of happiness.

Though want of intelligence is either not at all or
but little felt of the individual who is ignorant of his
defect, yet it is far more grievous than want of phy-
sical wealth. The man who is born blind knows not
his misery ; so the man who is trained up in igno-
rance, knows not the difference between ignorance
and superior intelligence. There is as much differ-
ence in that respect between man and man, as there
is between man and brute.

Therefore, it is the greatest tyranny and injustice,
when men are put under so unequal chances for learn-
ing as the case is now. These injustices are carried
to the height of barbarity, if, in spite of these unequal
circumstances in which men live, the laws and insti-
tutions are made as if all men had equally acquired
full knowledge of all the things to be known.

It is owing to these unequal chances for intellec-
tual culture, that there is so great a variety and con-
tradiction of opinions among men. Every family,
and every individual, has its own sphere of impres-
sions and ideas; and again, every sect, party, or na-
tion. They reciprocally recriminate each other of

195

By the new means :

wealth is acquired without trouhle, but with ever in-
creasing pleasure. Man needs but to observe the
objects placed before him. He has means to accu-
mulate all things of the world, and to combine them
for his instruction. Whatever combination of cir-
cumstances man may think of for investigation,
he is enabled there to realise them without^ exertion.
The more man learns, the more he becomes aware of
his preceding ignorance and errors, and the more he
discovers means for increasing his knowledges. It
will be with intellectual wealth, as it is now with phy-
sical wealth, — the more man has, the more he will and
can acquire ; with this difference, however, that intel-
lectual wealth can never get lost. Man will there be
under no limit of means for increasing his knowledges.
Physical wealth will there be no object of human en-
deavours any more.

There is a surety, that all men know all things of
a general nature to be possibly known by man ; and
therefore a surety that all men are equally convinced
of what is or is not ; so there is nothing in contra-
diction with the minds of men in all laws and
institutions, which are but originated in the gene-
ral conviction and will of the people. There will, in
consequence, be no more dispute about any demon-
strated truth, than there is now about colours or
shapes, as little as there is now about what is square,
round, black, or white. So it will be there with every
reality within the perception of human senses. And
whatever is out of the reach of human senses, and

196

At present :

folly and perverseiiess about differences of ideas,
which they do not fully or not all understand of
each other. Those who suppose themselves to be
belter informed than others, pride themselves of it,
and despise the supposed less intelligent ; these again
feel the injustice, and recriminate others in their turn.

Thus the injustices are reciprocally heightened by
superciliousness of real or gratuitously supposed su-
periority of knowledges and intelligence.

In addition to these injustices and irrational feel-
ings, the better informed is more respected, and en-
joys greater pecuniary advantages than those of less
information, though they had very unequal chances
for it.

Despotism of governments and priesthood have in-
troduced, in times of gross ignorance and childish
superstition, ideas and customs, by enforcing them
upon the minds of children before they could reason,
instead of useful knowledges of realities, which no-
tions have been handed down from one generation to
another, until our time. Ignorant and weak minds
are the least capable to examine them, and to discern
truth from error. Such miserable beings imagine now
to know a great many things, while in fact they are
but poor dupes of superstition, and are in a degree
rendered insane by delusive notions.

Thus we receive generally a great deal of instruc-
tion in various ways from others. But these instruc-
tions are either lies or truths. If they are lies, they
must lead to endless errors, and dangers, and mis-

197

By the new means :

consequently not demonstrable, will soon be dis-
covered to be no object of rational dispute.

There is no occasion either for imposing lies or for
enforcing truths upon the minds. Let every one, child
or adult, first acquire all the knowledges of things
that be in existence, by showing the things them-
selves ; let the useful application be made, let him
then compare his old notions, whatever they be, with
those new knowledges ; let him see the contradiction,
and choose for himself what he pleases. There will
be no compulsion, no dispute about opinions, as soon
as men will have acquired full knowledge of all what
is to be known of the visible world ; and till that pe-
riod arrives, let there be a suspense of all animation
about different notion. Jt is not by contradicting
assertions, that man forsakes his notions ; it is by sub-
stantial proof, evidence of his senses, that he may
correct his error. And even in these cases, the de-

s 2

198

At present :

chiefs. For all conclusions drawn from false premises
must always be erroneous. Men who are thinking
and acting from false suppositions, will always ima-
gine, see, and expect things that have no existence,
and are thus as unfortunate and dangerous as
lunatics.

If men had ever lived in a state of innocence and
sincerity — if at least the majority had always been
wise, well -informed men, free of our common frail-
ties, and incapable of being deceived — if there had
never been causes for individual self-interest — if there
had never been opposite interests among men, and
consequently no inducements to cheating and lying —
then we might yet continue to do like little children,
faithfully believe all the stories handed to us from our
progenitors for our instruction and guides, and never
trouble our understanding with examining thera and
the circumstances under which they originated, and
comparing them to what our present experiences may
teach.

But we see, to our grief, this will not do. The
world is full of lies, frauds, and contradictions ; for
every one wants to gain advantage on his fellow-man,
which is impossible, without insincerity. We see the

199

By the new means :

monstration ought never to be begun with assertions
that contradict any old notion : but conviction of the
things that exist must first be established ; then let
him his old errors compare with it. Old, inveterate
prejudices, must be treated, like diseases, with cau-
tion, not, like faults, with irritation. A madman and
a man of prejudices are alike in imagining things as
realities, though they do not exist ; both are but irri-
tated at contradictions to their notions, and can only
get cured after they have discovered themselves their
fancies to be errors.

A general state of sincerity, innocence, and true
intelligence will then come into existence ; because
there is but one general interest, — to be and to see all
fellow-men intelligent, well-informed, and happy, in
order to increase thereby the general happiness. It
will there be as disagreeable to see an ignorant, su-
perstitious, or misinformed, unhappy, human being,
as it is now to see a poor, insane, or a deformed man,
for whom we can but feel pity. Every thing can there
but contribute to promote innocence, good-natured
dispositions, and intelligence. They will soon cease
to be dupes of ancient ignorance and barbarity, and
look upon the past errors and ignorance with disgust
and horror.

The causes for lying and cheating are removed.
If any man should lie or cheat, still it would be of no
great consequence, and always prove to his own dis-
advantage ; for he would not be believed again. There

200

At present :

practice of deception every day before us, in small and
and great affairs, by individuals and nations.

Every one is impelled by his own wants to act like
others do ; and that man would be considered as a
fool, who would act with perfect sincerity and im-
plicit belief in every man's words.

The criterion and way of examining for discerning
truth from lie is hence become problematic.

To resolve this problem is often very ill paid. It
is known that such endeavours have been punished
by fire, sword, dungeon, defamation, &c., while lies
were honoured and well paid.

Such have been generally the inducements for tell-
ing truths on important subjects !

Such is our present miserable state of general in-
telligence, and nothing is done to improve it, except
some degree of toleration for those who venture to
speak against general eiTors and deceptions.

We are trained up in filling our memoiy with
words and confused notions ; and learn some insipid
mechanical occupation for gaining our livelihood from
others.

All our aim is to be, to gain advantage on our fel-
low-man ; but to gain advantage on nature for gene-
ral improvement of thehuman condition is not thought
of yet.

201

By the new means :

would be, at all events, but little gain on one side, and
little damage on the other.

Fraud and lies can have no field for practice, and
the natural sincerity of one will produce sincerity of
the other in return ; for insincerity never pleases, and
never interests.

The criterion of general truths will as plainly be
understood by every one, without teachers, as a child
knows how to discern cold from warm, wet from dry,
sharp from blunt.

By degrees all causes for apprehensions for telling
truth will subside ; and then will men become rational.

It is not for men brought up in prejudices and
errors to judge of superiority of intelligence. It is
only for self-reflecting men, that now may soundly
j udge of what the state of better general intelligence
must then be.

Man sees and examines there the things themselves.

There is no inducement, no interest, to hurt any
man's feelings or happiness ; and the discovery of one
is equally beneficial for all, to the highest possible
degree, without prejudice to any individual.

202
At present :

Nature is productive, beyond all calculation, under
the lead of rational man : she displays continually her
activity in endless mysterious productions. All is riddle
to us. However, we see means and powers infinitely
superior to all human wants, if we hut open our eyes
and understanding.

But such is man's folly and ignorance, that he cares
little for all the substantial things for human life and
happiness; if he could only turn every thing into gold
or money, to buy the labours and dangers of his fellow-
man, then he would conceive himself happy. What
a trifling creature ! — with all his boast of being the
sublimest thing in the universe. Such is but one
consequence, among many equally deplorable, of our
present intellectual condition.

We know not one ten-thousandth part of what the
most ignorant among us thinks to know ; and we know
not one-thousandth part of what every man could and
ought to know, for his own happiness. For all our pro-
genitors, for thousands of years, passed their lives like
we, if not worse, in a general state of ignorance, and
erroneous, superstitious notions about every thing in
the visible world. The reason is plain: there was
never any united co-operation for great and useful
purposes : a few had to domineer over the many, by
craft : single individuals' reasonings and discoveries,

203

By the new means :

Gold, or any thiug of high price and of no intrinsic
value, will be looked upon as a childish trifle of no
value : for they can, even for ornament, their only
use, be substituted by other things, that answer
equally or better the same purposes, in any desired
quantity. But the really beneficial produces of nature
will be created in superabundance for every man ;
and all the study and delight will be directed towards
such objects, that may meliorate human life, not for
some certain individuals, but for all men.

It is not but till then that man will become a ra-
tional creature, consistent with himself, and with na-
ture, and in harmony with his own race, with gigantic
powers, means, and objects of activity. He will see
then that men lived hitherto, through ignorance and
errors, like wolves, fighting for prey among them-
selves, when they could live in harmony, and super-
abundance, and felicity, like gods.

Men will then have ideas of their own nature, and
the world in general, very different from what they
are now ; for they can and will explore ten thousand

204

At present :

contrary to vulgar notions, were disregarded, or even
punished in wsome way or another, or they had to hide
their knov\ledges.

What there is now of sciences is taught but to a
few, in fragments, and in a very imperfect and labo-
rious manner, both to the teachers and learners. There
are but poor provisions for materials of instruction, ex-
cept books. The study of human nature, and of uni-
versal nature, and the application of the acquired know-
ledges, are to be derived from experiments and obser-
vations, in generalising the conclusions drawn there-
from ; but this is done but in a very limited extent, to
very limited purposes, with very limited means, and
not one ten -thousandth part of men in the most civi-
lized nations is acquainted with the results thereof.

We have a great many Greek and Latin names for
the various branches of the science of nature, which
do not add any thing to the clearness of conception.
An universal study of nature is hardly ever attempted
by any individual; but it is done in fragments for but
petty purposes.

This state of mental culture is owing to but general
circumstances, and chiefly to our preceding ages.

To describe the errors and defects of our present
education and studies would fill volumes.

The well-informed and reflecting minds know them,
and the rest would not understand them. Therefore
these hints may suffice.

205

By the new means :

times more of it, than we know now, within one gene-
ration, and will have removed all the childisli erro-
neous notions of nature, and man himself that now
exist.

Men will have their mighty means in operation for
exploring whatever be an object of human knowledges
over all the world ; and the results will be known to
every one by new means of rapid communication.

Though we have, by the art of printing, a great ad-
vantage over the ancients, yet the means of commu-
nication will be immensely more rapid and general
than now ; so that any important event or discovery
may be diffused and known to every man throughout
the world in a few weeks, without pay or labour of any
individual : and no individual interest will hinder the
universal diffusion of new valuable discoveries or ideas.

There will be but one science, — but one way to learn ;
and no laborious study and teaching. This science
will be the science of nature, where every thing is
connected with every thing ; and no part can be well
understood by itself, unless its relation to the whole is
taken into view. It is there not the names, that puzzle
the mind, but the thing themselves are to be seen, ob-
served, and examined, before their names, classifica-
tion, &c., be noticed. The chances for seeing, hearing,
feeling, smelling, tasting, and reasoning, will be open
to every one through life. All the valuable know-
ledges of the human race may thus be learned by every
child, with no more trouble than it learns now, what
is a house, tree, apple, horse, &c,, with their uses.

T

206

The glaring difference between the present and
future condition of man is justified by the preceding
stat^ments ; but those who do not pay attention to
accumte reasoning will not understand them ; and
I deqlare, I do not possess the talent to express
myself intelligibly to those who do not pay attention
to mo.

I am an human, and as conscious as any man can be
of being liable to error. But I hare stated the reasons
of all my assertions before the public. The attentive
reader will perceive that I took a great deal of care to
guard against error in this untried matter. I have
offered any further explanation desired on the subject.
What could I do more ?

The objects stated are manifestly of paramount in-
terest to every human being. I have a right now to
declare, and every man of good sense will join in it,
that whoever looks on these objects with indifference,
and does not bestow his full attention and most se-
rious reflection on it, has no rational claim to be ranked
with man. I shall retract this declaration, and submit
to any atonement required for it, as soon as the stated
fundament of the proposals be proved to be absurd.

It would be inexcusable in me not to apply to our
Government in this case so important for the nation.
I think, therefore, I owe it to the public and to myself,
to inform the reader, that I have made application, si-
multaneously with the publication of this book, to the
Congress and to the Chief Magistrate of the nation ;
and as it may be material to know the manner of my
application, I annex the copies of both applications,
of which the results will be published.

207

To the Honourable the Senate^
and to the Honourable the House of Representatives of
the United States, in Congress assembled.

The petition of the undersigned to your Honourable
body most respectfully shows,

The petitioner brings before your Honourable body
a subject that appears to him of the utmost importance
to the nation and to the whole humankind at large.

The subject is explained in a book just published,
entitled : —

The Paradise within the reach of all men, without
labour, by powers of nature and machinery; an
address to all intelligent men, &c.
Of which a copy is adjoined hereby.

This book shows means to exalt the American nation
to power, wealth, and a general happiness superior to
all what was ever conceived by man, within a period
of less than ten years.

The book is published for the purpose of forming an
association for the execution of the proposals explained
in it, in case the Government of the United States
should not take the exclusive direction of this new
great cause.

The substance of this book is—
1. It is proved that there are powers at the disposal
of man, million times greater than all human exer-
tions could effect hitherto.
These powers are derived —

208

a. From wind.

b. From the tide.

c. From the waves of the sea, caused by wind.

d. From steam, generated by heat of the sun, by
means of concentrating reflectors, or burning mir-
rors of a simple contrivance

2. It is shown how these powers are to be rendered
re-active, so that, notwithstanding all irregularities
and intermissions of them, perpetual motions of uni-
form powers to any desired extent and magnitude
may be produced by them.

3. A system of application of these powers for su-
perseding all human labour.

4. The objects attainable by the system of appli-
cation.

5. A constitution for au association, and the condi-
tions for communicating the remaining details of the
inventions.

6. In the second part, the course to be taken in the
United States for attaining all objects explained in
the first part.

7. A view of the condition of man, arising from the
application of the proposed means, in comparison to
the present general condition of man.

Every thing necessary for the conviction of the
stated truths is contained in this book, except one
simple mechanism of a machine for doing all works
in hard materials, in earth, wood, or rocks, and some
details of establishments, which shall be communicated
as soon as the fundamental truths, proved in this
book, are examined, and acknowledged as far as essen-
tial to the purposes in view, and a way be shown and

209

guaranteed to the author, to patronise his interest, be
it from an association, or from the Government.

Your petitioner humbly proposes to your Honour-
able body

To appoint^ for examining the subject of the book, a
committee, whose objections, questions, or doubts on
the subject, it is, however, most essential to commu-
nicate to your petitioner, who will join his replies to
their report, for your further decision.

In submitting this subject for your consideration,
your petitioner has not so much his own personal in-
terest in view, as the interest of the nation, and human
kind at large.

The new truths of the book will soon be promul-
gated throughout America and Europe ; and they will
find a ready reception in the congenial spirit and
knowledges of the present days.

Your petitioner deems it of the greatest importance
to offer humbly, of these truths, the first cognizance to
the Great Council of the freest and happiest nation on
earth ; this country being the most favourable for the
introduction of these new means into practice. But
in doing so., he apprehends nothing so mucTi as that
his proposals might be mistaken for extravagance, and
therefore be slighted before examination : he fears it,
not so much for his own individual interest, as for your
honour and glory, and for the glory and happiness of
the nation. For if the American nation should not
be the first to make use of the proposed means —
some other nation must be it, and may then, with
them, rule over the rest of the world.

t2

210

Your petitioner is convinced, as well as any man in
the nation can be, that, had he proposed an object
which would bring some millions of dollars into the
national treasury, your sense of your exalted duties,
your patriotism and wisdom, would prompt you to
bestow your most serious attention upon the subject.
But when a subject appears before you that promises
ten thousand times more — will it not be taxed an
extravagance, unworthy your consideration ?

Your Honours, this is my case; but it is not my
fault — it is the fault of past ages — of their having paid
no attention to the subject proposed.

I ask humbly your wisdom — what shall I do in
such a case ? Shall I consign with me the greatest
discovery ever made to the grave, for fear of being-
taken for insane and derided ? — or, shall I not rather
apply all the means in my power to invite the atten-
tion of the governments of the civilized nations to the
subject ? Or, if I cannot succeed in such endeavours,
shall I not, as my last resource, solicit the attention of
the most intelligent part of the public on the subject,
when I can show plainly the ways and means for de-
riving incalculably great benefits from it ?

I have chosen both latter ways : I have offered the
discoveries, first, at once to the Government and to
the Public of the first American nation. If I am
wrong, the book shows it ; if I am right, nothing ma-
terial can be disproved ; and in this case, I must pur-
sue my course towards realizing my great objects,
wherever I find the first chance for it.

I am aware that other discoverers of great, valuable
things, were taken for insane, even by governments —

211

but I know also, that some of t?em found favourable
reception of the Government of the United States.

One simple truth will often lead to an endless con-
catenation of other most important truths, never
thought of before. So it is with mathematical truths
— those who see then but the final results, without
studying the fundamental truths, cannot believe them,
and very readily deem them to be fables. The dis-
coveries of the system of the universe, the new con-
tinent, the law of the lever, the art of printing, the
power of steam, and a hundred others, which all pro-
ceeded from simple truths, and led to infinite results,
are examples. But when the discoverers had no
authorities of men yet for their support, but only sober
reason and arithmetic, like I have now, to appeal to,
they were disbelieved ; and it was thought even a
disgrace to condescend so far as to inquire into their
reasons. Whether my exhibited truths shall have a
better fate in this country, is now depending from
your decision.

The fundamental truths, in the present case, are so
simple, that a child of ten years may easily compre -
hend them. They are only these : —

That the wind, the periodical rise and fall, and the
motions of the ocean, and the transformation of
water into steam, aff'ord ten thousand times more
power than the whole human race may ever want
for all imaginable purposes ; that these powers can
be rendered operative uninterruptedly; that by re-
flectors the heat of the sun can be concentrated, and
any desired heat produced ; that by this heat steam
can be generated ; and sand, clay, and other vitres-

212

cible substances can be vitrified ; that the finest cul-
tivation of soil, and all works in the ground, can be
efi*ected by one simple contrivance ; and that very
large vehicles can be moved by such great powers ;
and that pliable stufi" can be composed and formed
into any desired form.

There is nothing absurd or confutable in all these
fundamental truths ; and they will appear quite
common things. Yet they are more than sufiicient to
produce a total revolution of the human race, as soon
as understood ; for they can eflfect in one year more
than hitherto could be done in 10,000 years, and
things unheard of. The world will take a quite dif-
ferent appearance than it has had hitherto to man ;
productive of thousand times more means for human
happiness, than the human race may be wanting ; a
paradise beyond the common conceptions.

A brief statement of the attainable objects may not
be improper here, which the book shows more plainly.
The whole country changed into one garden, supe-
rior to whatever human hands could efiect hitherto ;
the ground covered every where with the most fertile
soil, with all desirable vegetables of the climate, in
any desired arrangement ; the swamps and lakes filled
up, and dmined; the rivers, creeks, &c., narrowed
into channels of vitrified substance, bordered with
dams against inundation ; elevations or excavations
of ground for any desired purpose; canals and aque-
ducts for irrigating the soil, at any time, any where ;
ponds for fishes, on bottoms and with borders of
vitrified substance ; the water of canals, rivers, ponds,
&c., in its utmost purity, distilled or filtrated. Roads

213

of large tables, many feet thick, all as in one solid
piece of vitrified substance, hard as flint; with iron
rails; with establishments for propelling vehicles,
carrying many thousand tons and men at once, running
at the rate of 1000 miles per day, in every direction,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Mines of any
extent and depth. Palaces, superior in magnificence,
grandeur, and commodities, to any thing known ; of
crystal-like appearance, inside and outside ; and in-
destructible for thousands of years ; constructed as if
of one entire piece, for the common habitations of men
every where; floating islands of light wooden stuff"
impervious to water, made of any kind of wood,
covered with fertile soil, bearing trees, and all kinds
of desirable vegetables, with palaces and gardens, and
thousands of families for tlieir inhabitants, exempt
from all dangers and incommodities ; which may
move by powerful engines at the rate of 1000 miles
per day through the ocean. Man may travel over
land, and see from pole to pole in a fortnight ; from
America to Europe in three to four days with a cer-
tainty. All things desirable for human life, when
once known, may be rapidly multiplied, without la-
bour or expense, to superabundance for every one ;
and wealth become as cheap as water. The establish-
ments and machineries multiply themselves, being of
a quite simple construction. Soft furnitures, for com-
modities, or ornament and dress, are produced withou
labour, in the form, fashion, or quality wanted, ready
made; being cast in a similar manner as paper, of
cohesive and fibrous substances, fitly prepared ; with-
out any carding, spinning, weaving, sewing, Sec. In
applying the present sciences of physics, superior food

214

and beverage, scientifically prepared, and purified
from all admixtures injurious to healthy superior air
for breathing ; and a superior life in every respect to
what was ever in practice, may prolong life to an ex-
tent not to be foretold. Man sees, by these new means,
himself exalted to a superior kind of beings. He may
not only enjoy his life in a far superior manner, but
means are afforded to learn in one year more highly
useful things to be known, than the most learned could
not learn in all his life hitherto, and without laborious
study.

All such things may be efi'ected within less than
ten years, beginning with a principal not larger than
a turnpike, or a canal of twenty miles costs now, which
may be collected by shares of twenty to fifty dollars ;
but for the Government it would be a trifle. No risk,
no confidence, is asked, except the trouble of exami-
nation.

The same powers may also be used as weapons for
conquering and subjecting nations: because they
aff'ord means to which neither gunpowder nor armies
of any number of men can resist. Europe will be ap-
proached to America within three or four days' jour-
ney, by means of impregnable fortresses. The question
will hence be, whether America or Europe is to be the
ruling power ? And this question is now brought be-
fore your Honourable body. The fate of the world is
thus depending from your decision.

Your petitioner will, as in duty bound, for ever

pray, &c.

Your most obedient humble servant,

J.A.ETZLER,

Pittsburgh, February 21 , 1833.

21d

To his Excellency f Andrew Jackson, President of
the United States.

Sir,

In sending a book to your Excellency, entitled *' The
Paradise," &c., and copies of petitions to Congress, I
think I fulfil a most important duty towards the
nation, whose glory, power, and general happiness, is
trusted to your care.

I promise to show what no man ever did, and oflfer
mathematical proof for it. I desire nothing so much
as a suspension of judgment on the subject proposed,
until an examination and fair undei-standing of it be
effected.

The book is addressed at once to the Government
of the United States, to the American nation, and to
all civilized nations and governments, and will soon
find its way through America and Europe. I have no
hesitation to confess, that I shall seize upon the first
opportunity for application offered to me any where.

For I know that other discoverers of great, valuable
things had to labour with difficulties, for gaining a
fair hearing, and examination, and execution, ten or
twenty years; and some died of grief in poverty,
though their discoveries enriched nations after their
death. Human life is too short and uncertain, as to
submit patiently to such a fate.

It would be of the happiest consequences for the
whole human race, if the unavoidable revolution of the
human condition that must take place, in consequence
of the progress of human intelligence (knowledges of

.216

* ■ ,'

new pjowers and means), tliroijghout the world, would

originate in the United States % where situation and

national constitution are eminently jinore favourable

to the free development of the human powers for

general happiness, than any where on the globe.

Every friend to'hurnanity would therefore rejoice,
if the Government of the United States could be pre-
vailed to bestow attention uponi'such subjects as pro-
posed; and it will certainly behove tOsthe dignity of
an enlightened people, not to send new proposals
home without inquiry into the reasons, because they
may seem extravagant.

If any thing material can be disproved in my state-
ments, I am silenced for ever ; and the Government
will be justified in the eyes of the nation, and of other
enlightened peoples, for not taking any further notice
of the subject. But in the contrary case, your Excel-
lency may judge what the consequences would be.

I humbly leave it to your Excellency whether, and in
what manner, you will please to favour the proposals.

I am, most respectfully,
Your most obedient humble servant,

J. A. ETZLER.

Pittsburgh, February 21, 1833.

John Brooks, Printer, 421, Oxford Street.